Quickstart: send your first message

This guide sends your first message in about five minutes.

1. Get your API key

Sign in to the dashboard, open Settings → API keys, and create a key. It authenticates every request you send and should never be exposed in a browser or mobile app — call it from your own backend.

2. Send a message

curl https://api.wezend.com/v1/messages/send \
  -H "X-API-Key: $WEZEND_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "to": "+4512345678",
    "channel": "sms",
    "sender": "WeZend",
    "message": "Hello from WeZend"
  }'

A successful call returns 201 with the message record:

{
  "message_id": "3fa1e2c0-...",
  "status": "queued",
  "channel": "sms",
  "to": "+4512345678",
  "cost": 0.045,
  "currency": "EUR",
  "created_at": "2026-07-08T10:00:00.000Z"
}

3. Check delivery

Poll GET /v1/messages/:message_id, or — better at any real volume — pass a webhook_url in the send request and receive delivery updates as they happen. See Webhooks.

Next steps

• Authentication — API keys vs. dashboard sessions
• Sending messages — every field /v1/messages/send accepts, and channel fallback
• Rate limits — the real, current limits per endpoint