Get an access token

Learn how to authenticate and get an access token in a development environment.

1. Before you begin
2. Generate a token

Before you begin

For this tutorial, you need the following items:

• Your client ID and secret
• The base URL of your assigned Instacart development server

Generate a token

To make requests to the API, you need a bearer token with the client_credentials grant type. To generate the token, use the authentication endpoint, specify your client ID and secret in the body, and set the scope to connect:ian. If you omit the scope, the access token is valid for all scopes.

curl --request POST \
  --url https://<instacart_dev_domain>/v2/oauth/token \
  --header 'Accept: application/json' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '{
  "client_id": "<your_client_id>",
  "client_secret": "<your_client_secret>",
  "grant_type": "client_credentials"
  "scope": "connect:ian"
}'

The response contains the generated token. The token is valid for 24 hours, after which you need to generate a new token.

{
  "access_token": "<your_access_token>",
  "token_type": "Bearer",
  "expires_in": 86400,
  "scope": "connect:ian",
  "created_at": 1603897760
}

Use the token in the Authorization header of all requests to the API.