Getting started
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To use the bunq API in production, you'll need a personal or business bunq account, which you can create directly in the bunq mobile app.
But if you're just getting started, you don’t need a real account yet.
We provide a sandbox environment where you can:
Generate sandbox users instantly
Access test accounts with fake money
Experiment freely without risk
To get started with the sandbox account we recommend you start with our tutorial: Your first payment which guides you through all the steps.
bunq offers two environments for developers:
Free and open to anyone — no real bunq account required
Preloaded with test money and mock users
Safe to experiment, test features, and simulate payments
Ideal for:
Trying out the API
Building and testing your integration
Running automated tests
Connects to real bunq accounts and live money
Requires a valid bunq personal or business account
Used for actual payments, user data, and transactions
Use this when:
You're ready to go live
You want to interact with real users and money
Follow these instructions to start Creating a sandbox user and getting an API key and here to Getting sandbox money on the user account.
If you're building something just for your own bunq account, you can generate a personal API Keys directly from the bunq app:
Grants full access to your own account
Ideal for internal tools, scripts, or personal automations
Simple to set up: no redirects, no user consent flow
If you're building an app or service that needs access to other users’ bunq accounts, use OAuth:
Users grant permission to your app
You get access only to the scopes they approve
Required for multi-user apps, SaaS products, and platforms
To make integration easier, we offer official SDKs in the most popular languages:
🐍 Python
☕️ Java
💠 C#
🐘 PHP
These SDKs handle encryption, session creation, and API communication for you — so you can focus on building. Check them out here
Simplifies authentication and session handling
Automatically manages request signing and response parsing
Speeds up development with helpful abstractions
We offer a few Tutorials that help you step-by-step to understand the basics. These tutorials exist:
bunq supports webhooks to notify your app in real time when something happens — like receiving a payment or a card transaction. These events are also available via the API, but webhooks let you react instantly without polling. Just register a callback URL, and bunq will send a signed POST request whenever an event occurs.
Learn how to set up these callbacks here Callbacks (Webhooks)
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