Welcome
Welcome to the Adyen API
A single REST API for accepting payments anywhere your customers are. Process card, wallet, and 100+ local payment methods across 200+ markets, manage merchants and terminals, and reconcile activity through one integration.
Pick Your Path
| If you're … | Start here |
|---|---|
| Building an integration today | Make Your First API Call — test key, sandbox payment, and first Authorised response in five steps. |
| Mapping the API to your business | Skim Why Adyen and What You Can Build below, then jump into Payment Use Cases. |
Why Adyen
Architectural choices that distinguish Adyen from other payments platforms — surfaced here because they affect your integration shape, not just our marketing.
One API for every payment type
A single POST /payments call handles cards, wallets, BNPL, and 100+ local methods — the paymentMethod.type discriminator selects the rail. No separate endpoint per scheme, no separate SDK per region.
Hosted, drop-in, or fully custom
createCheckoutSession gives you a hosted checkout in one call. Components and Drop-in cover the middle ground. The raw /payments endpoint lets you own every pixel. Same auth, same response shape across all three.
Three-layer account model
Company → merchant → terminal. Manage platforms, sub-merchants, and physical devices with endpoint groups scoped to the layer you care about — without leaking control into the layers you don't.
Domestic acquiring, global reach
Adyen is a licensed acquirer in Europe, the UK, the US, Canada, Brazil, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, and more. Cards stay on local rails — auth rates climb, cross-border fees disappear.
What You Can Build
Adyen powers commerce across every vertical where the speed, breadth, and shopper experience of payment is part of the product:
Ecommerce checkout
Hosted Drop-in or fully custom — with 3DS2, dynamic routing, and risk built in.
Subscriptions & recurring
Tokenize once, charge forever. CIT and MIT flows with network-token support.
Marketplaces & platforms
Split a single shopper payment across many sellers automatically.
In-person & omnichannel
One shopper, every channel. Cross-channel refunds and unified tokens.
Pay-by-Link
No frontend? Generate a hosted URL and send it via SMS, email, or chat.
Donations & round-ups
Cause-driven add-ons at checkout — in a single follow-up API call.
A full set of vertical case studies and product overviews lives at adyen.com and adyen.com/customers.
Get Started
- Create a test account — sign up in the Adyen Customer Area; the test environment mirrors live behaviour.
- Get API credentials — generate a key scoped to your merchant account.
- Pick an SDK — TypeScript, Python, Java, .NET, PHP, Ruby, or Go.
- Grab a test card — covers auth, capture, refund, 3DS, and decline scenarios.
- Send your first payment —
POST /paymentswithpaymentMethod.type: "scheme"and watch theAuthorisedresponse land.
Most integrators are sending payments to a sandbox merchant within five minutes of starting step 1.
Documentation Map
- Make Payments with Adyen API — the starting line: hero CTAs, use-case cards, and the three-layer account model
- Your Onboarding Journey — a four-stage path from zero to production: Getting Started → Concepts → Resources → Reference
- Payment Use Cases — ecommerce, subscriptions, marketplaces, in-person, Pay-by-Link, donations, partial payments
- Global Coverage — regions, currencies, and local payment methods
- Get API Credentials — generate, rotate, and scope your keys
- Test Card Numbers — every brand, every 3DS profile, every decline reason
- Adyen Instant Storefront — a working sample app generated by the Adyen Context Plugin
- API Endpoints — Payments — the core money-movement endpoints; every other endpoint group (Modifications, Recurring, Payment links, Orders, Terminals, Webhooks, …) is one click away
SDKs, API Spec & Live Sandbox
| Tool | How to access | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Code Samples | Language picker, upper-right corner | Switch between REST, TypeScript, Python, Java, .NET, PHP, Ruby, and Go — examples update automatically |
| Download SDK | Get SDK button, upper-left corner | Download a ready-to-use, auto-generated SDK for the selected language |
| API Spec | API Spec button, upper-left corner | Export the specification in OpenAPI 3.1, Postman Collection 2.0, RAML, and other formats |
| Live Sandbox | Send button on any endpoint page | Make real API calls against the Adyen test environment directly from the documentation |
| AI Assistant | Chat bubble, bottom-right | Ask the API Integration Assistant anything about endpoints, parameters, or best practices |
Tip: Pair the in-browser console with the Postman Collection export for offline exploration — both call the same Adyen test environment.
Environments
| Environment | Customer Area | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Test | ca-test.adyen.com | Behaviourally identical to live. All examples in this portal target test. |
| Live | ca-live.adyen.com | Live endpoints use a per-customer prefix issued during go-live. Re-generate keys when you switch. |
An Adyen account is required for both environments — sign up or contact our team to provision one.
Support and Next Steps
- Integration questions: ask the API Integration Assistant in the bottom-right of this portal — it knows every endpoint and most common patterns.
- Account, settlement, and live-environment issues: Adyen Support.
- Conceptual deep-dives (compliance, risk, reporting, settlement): docs.adyen.com.
- Evaluating Adyen for your business: book a demo or visit adyen.com.
Attribution
The SDKs and documentation available in this portal were generated by APIMatic based on the publicly available documentation for the Adyen APIs. APIMatic is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or associated with Adyen in any capacity.