ShipStation strives to streamline shipping for online sellers, no matter where they sell their products online. We continuously add new marketplaces, shopping carts, and integration tools because we know the ecommerce space is growing. As a result, we’ve worked hard to provide developer resources to build custom integrations with ShipStation.
Our API allows developers to build applications that interface with the ShipStation platform. You can use the API to handle many tasks, including:
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Manage Orders
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Manage Shipments
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Retrieve Shipping Rates
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Create Shipping Labels
Attached to the end of this article are spreadsheets, for your reference, with API codes for many of our available shipping services. It only includes service codes for publicly available shipping services.
ShipStation currently has two active versions for API access, the OpenAPI has become V1 API and the recently launched version is V2 API. More details about the differences between the two types of API access are outlined in the sections below.
New Accounts Gain Access After Email Verification
For security purposes, we require account verification by email after you have signed up for a ShipStation account and before you can generate API keys.
For quicker access or urgent requirements during the wait time for email verification to clear, feel free to contact your trial account manager or contact ShipStation support for assistance.
ShipStation's OpenAPI is now called V1 API and it is still operational. V1 API access will be limited to accounts on a Standard or Accelerate plan or higher. V1 API will not be available via the add-on or on lower plans.
With this version of the API you can generate two API keys. Check out this page for the V1 Open API documentation.
Please note your API Keys will expire. You can generate a new API key to rotate it into use before the first one expires. You will see no time loss in your workflow and experience greater security.
ShipStation recently launched the V2 API, a new version that includes Shipping and Inventory endpoints. The V2 API is a great way to get data directly to and from ShipStation, especially when you create orders, add customers, or query your order and shipping data. Check out this ShipStation Developer page for full V2 documentation .
Shipping API:
These endpoints include everything related to shipping, such as rates, customs forms, labels, and tracking.
Inventory API:
You can activate the ShipStation Inventory API via the Account add-ons for any plan level. The Inventory API provides powerful tools to manage inventory across multiple warehouses. With these API endpoints, you can retrieve stock levels, set and update SKU counts, update inventory quantities, and synchronize data between ShipStation, inventory warehouses, and external systems.
FEATURES:
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Real-time Inventory Tracking: Get accurate stock levels across all locations.
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Batch Updates: Modify inventory quantities in bulk.
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Warehouse Management: Assign inventory to specific warehouses.
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Stock Adjustments: Track changes due to sales, returns, or manual adjustments.
Standard or Accelerate or higher Plans:
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You have access to both the V1 API and V2 API endpoints, and you can generate multiple keys for V1.
Plans lower than Standard or Accelerate:
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The V1 API will not be available. Any API Keys currently in use will expire or will return a 402 response.
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The V2 API will not be available. Any existing V2 API keys that are not Inventory API Add-On will return a 402 response.
Available as Add On:
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You can activate the Inventory API via the Account add-ons for any plan level.
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The Inventory API is a specific subset of V2 API endpoints that are separate from the base V2 API. Anyone who has enabled the Inventory API add-on can use these particular endpoints, regardless of plan level and regardless of access to the V2 API as a whole.
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To use ShipStation's API, you'll need to generate an API key, and for V1, an API secret as well. This information will be included with any calls made to the API. The API key and API secret are used to authenticate the API calls so that ShipStation updates the information within your specific account.
API Key Visibility & Access Rules
API keys and API secrets will only show in ShipStation’s UI once when they are generated and only to the user who generated them. They will be hidden from view in the ShipStation UI after you navigate away from the page.
We strongly recommend that you immediately copy the API key secret into your records after generation.
API Key Generation Limited to the Account Owner Only
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Only the Account Owner can generate API keys. They will need to verify their email to access the API Key Generator.
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API keys can only be viewed in plain text. This view will be available only once, immediately after the keys are generated.
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If you are unsure who is considered to be your account’s owner, contact support@shipstation.com to confirm.
To get your API key and secret in ShipStation:
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Select your API Version from the dropdown and click Generate API Key.
We will email a verification link to your user email address.
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Check the verification link we send to your user email address and then generate the keys again.
The Generate API Key button will reset once you verify your email.
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Set the expiration (3, 6, or 12 months) for your new API Key, then click Generate.
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Click the Copy icon
to copy your newly generated API Key. Your API Key and Secret will only be visible once, they will be hidden in the UI after you navigate away from this page.
Be sure to immediately record your API Key and Secret in a secure location.
You can then provide your key and secret to the account you wish to access the ShipStation API.
The same set of API keys can be used for multiple API applications. If you generate new keys at any point, be sure to provide the new keys to any application that uses them, or the connection with ShipStation will no longer function.
Generate Two V1 API Keys for a Single Platform
ShipStation allows two V1 API keys to facilitate the process of rotating keys within the same integration. This rotation is to ensure you a consistent workflow and security. These keys are not to be used for two distinct integrations.
When your API key is about to expire, we will remind you by email that you need to rotate your keys before the current one becomes inactive.
There is no way to limit the scope of API access at this time. If an API developer has access to your key and secret, they'll be able to perform any ShipStation API actions available.
Rotating an API key means replacing the old one with a new one. Periodically, you’ll need to create a new key and update your integrations.
To rotate an API key:
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Go to Settings > Account > API Settings.
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Select your API Version from the dropdown and click Generate API Key.
If you already have two sets of API keys, delete one before generating a new set.
See V2 in the Dropdown? Here's What You Need to Know.
If you do not already have V2 API keys generated, there’s no need to generate V2 API keys for this process. Keep in mind that V1 and V2 API keys aren’t interchangeable—they’re used for different types of integrations.
We will email a verification link to your user email address.
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Check the verification link we send to your user email address and then generate the keys again.
The Generate API Key button will reset once you verify your email.
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Set the expiration (3, 6, or 12 months) for your new API Key, then click Generate.
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Click the Copy icon
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Copy and paste your new API Key(s) your external integrations, platforms, and systems that use it.
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Locate the API Key you no longer want, and click the Trash Can icon
beside it.
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Click Delete Key in the Delete API Key popup.
Deleting an API Key cannot be undone. You will need to update any platforms that use that key when you generate a new key.
ShipStation's support team cannot help you design or build an API integration, but we can certainly help test API calls and make sure everything is working as designed or help you identify information within the call body that would cause errors.
Before you get started with ShipStation's API, we highly recommend that you review our developer documentation for a full overview of all the actions that the API calls can perform. This documentation also provides you with examples of calls and responses for API communication based on the version of API you are using.
See this ShipStation Developer page for full V2 documentation and this page for the V1 Open API documentation.
If you're running into issues with one or more of your API calls and need some assistance, email our API Support team directly.
For V1 API Support please apisupport@shipstation.com and our team will help look into the issue with you.
For V2 API Support please shippingapisupport@shipstation.com and our team will help look into the issue with you.
To better assist you, please make sure to include the following information:
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The API action you were trying to perform (ex: List Shipments, Create Orders, etc.)
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The full API endpoint you were contacting (ex: https://ssapi.shipstation.com/shipments?orderNumber=zen-285858-1)
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If making a POST API call, the full JSON body of the request.
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The status code number for the API response.
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The full JSON response to the API call.
Without the above information, it can be difficult for ShipStation to troubleshoot API issues. If you're unsure how to obtain that information, we recommend that you contact your API developer directly for assistance pulling any available logs. We also recommend that you CC your API developer on any email communication to the support team.
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Retrieve Shipping Rates may be unavailable for some carriers and services.
Some carriers and services for some carriers may be unavailable to retrieve shipping rates via
getRatecalls. For example,getRatecalls will not return usable rates for UPS Ground Saver ®. To ensure success, check with your carrier first about which of their available shipping services support rate browsing. -
ShipStation V1 API does not support:
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The Reship an Order function.
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Non-Roman character sets like Japanese, Chinese, and Cyrillic. These sets are often not supported by the carrier's label API, resulting in ??? symbols or blank spaces on the label where the characters should be.
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