Getting started
Authentication
Every request carries an API key as a bearer token. There is no other way in, and no request is answered without one.
curl https://app.personade.com/api/v1/templates \ -H "Authorization: Bearer pnd_..."Making a key
In Personade, open Account and create a key. You choose two things when you make it, and neither can be changed afterwards.
What it may do
A read-only key can list templates, campaigns, costs and finished links. It cannot create a campaign, add anybody, or spend a credit. Give anything that only reports a read-only key, because a key pasted into the wrong column should not be able to start two hundred renders.
How much it may spend in a day
A daily credit cap, enforced inside the charge itself rather than beside it, so two calls landing in the same second cannot both slip under it. This is the real protection. An automation with a bug does not stop because it feels bad about it, and the videos it makes are paid for the moment they exist.
Credits
Every endpoint that renders a video spends credits, so it is worth knowing what one is before you wire anything up.
One credit is one person and one video. Adding people costs nothing. Preview and generate are the only two calls that charge. There is one surcharge: people imported from our verified-email database cost one extra credit per five, collected once per campaign by whichever render happens first, which is the gap between low and high in an estimate.
A failed render has its credit returned automatically. Stopping a campaign refunds everyone whose video had not started; anyone already rendering finishes and their credit stands.
Rate limit
120 requests per minute per key. Over that you get a 429 with the rate_limited code. It is per key rather than per account, so one busy integration cannot lock you out of the others.
If a key leaks
Revoke it in Account. A key can read and change the campaigns of exactly one workspace and nothing else: it cannot reach your billing, your card, your recordings or another workspace, and it cannot raise its own daily cap. Keys start pnd_ so they can be spotted in a log or a paste, and carry 43 characters of base62 after that. Keys issued before August 2026 start pnd_live_ and still work.
Start building
Make your first key
Keys live in Personade under Account. Pick read-only unless the integration has to build campaigns.