Introduction

Overview

GoDaddy's REST APIs give you direct programmatic access to the same platform capabilities that power GoDaddy's own products — through standard HTTP calls from your code, scripts, or AI agents.

What you can do

Base URL

All API calls target https://api.godaddy.com.

All requests and responses use JSON. Every call requires an Authorization header. Most APIs take a Personal Access Token, but some require a Classic Developer Key instead. Review the authentication requirements for the API you're calling. Read operations also need Accept: application/json, and write operations (POST, PATCH, PUT) additionally need Content-Type: application/json.

curl -s "https://api.godaddy.com/v1/domains" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $GODADDY_PAT" \
  -H "Accept: application/json"

The API is stateless — no sessions, no cookies. Each request is independently authenticated and authorized. See the REST Reference for the complete endpoint catalog.

Credentials and access

Most APIs authenticate with a Personal Access Token (PAT) (a scoped Bearer token you generate from the developer dashboard). PATs are tied to specific capability scopes, can be set to expire, and can be revoked individually without rotating any account-wide key. For most integrations, a PAT with the minimum required scopes is the right choice.

The Classic Developer Key (sso-key, a key/secret pair from classic-developer.godaddy.com/keys) is still supported for some APIs but is scheduled for deprecation. It doesn't work for v3 Domains APIs. New Domains integrations should use a PAT. Some APIs (like the Auctions API) require a Classic Developer Key and don't accept PATs. Review the authentication requirements for the API you plan to call before you generate a credential.

Account eligibility matters for write calls. A valid credential isn't enough on its own. Some operations require the account to meet additional eligibility requirements:

• Read operations (availability search, domain listing, DNS reads) work with any valid credential on any account.
• Write operations that cost money (registration, renewal, transfer, and payment operations) require the account to have a valid billing method on file or a funded Good as Gold balance.

If an account doesn't meet these requirements, the API returns 403 Forbidden. To determine whether the failure is a scope problem or an account eligibility problem, check the code field in the response body. The HTTP status alone doesn't distinguish between the two.

First call

Follow the Quickstart to generate a Personal Access Token and make your first call in under five minutes. If you prefer command-line workflows over raw curl, set up the CLI first.

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