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Send gift card rewards from your code in 5 minutes

No SDK, no dependency, no build step. One base URL, one auth header, JSON in and out. Here is the whole thing — from a test key to a real reward — in the time it takes to read this page.

Updated October 2026 · 5 min read · Full API reference →

1. Get a test key

Sign up at sendreward.com and open API keys. Every account comes with a test key and $1,000 of free sandbox balance. The key is shown once, so copy it somewhere safe. It starts with sr_test_.

Test rewards behave exactly like live ones — identical responses, identical statuses, identical webhooks — except nothing is emailed and nothing is charged. Build your entire integration against the test key, then swap it for a live key when you are ready.

2. Send your first reward

The whole API is one base URL:

https://sendreward.com/api/v1

Send a reward with a single POST. The Idempotency-Key header is optional but you should always send one — it makes retries safe.

curl https://sendreward.com/api/v1/rewards \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sr_test_…" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: order-88213" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "recipient_email": "maria@example.com",
    "recipient_name": "Maria",
    "amount": 25,
    "reference": "order-88213",
    "message": "Thanks for your order, Maria — here is a little something extra."
  }'

You get back 201 Created and the reward object:

{
  "id": "rw_7f3a2c91d0e84b16",
  "object": "reward",
  "mode": "test",
  "status": "sent",
  "amount": "25.00",
  "currency": "USD",
  "recipient_email": "maria@example.com",
  "reference": "order-88213",
  "created_at": "2026-10-19T14:02:11Z"
}

That is a reward sent. In test mode it landed in your dashboard under the Test filter; in live mode Maria just got an email.

3. The same thing in your language

There is no SDK to install, so it is a handful of lines anywhere. These all do exactly what the curl above does.

PHP

$ch = curl_init('https://sendreward.com/api/v1/rewards');
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
  CURLOPT_POST => true,
  CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
  CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
    'Authorization: Bearer ' . $apiKey,
    'Idempotency-Key: ' . $orderId,
    'Content-Type: application/json',
  ],
  CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => json_encode([
    'recipient_email' => $email,
    'amount'          => 25,
    'reference'       => $orderId,
    'message'         => 'Thanks for your order!',
  ]),
]);
$reward = json_decode(curl_exec($ch), true);
curl_close($ch);

Node

const res = await fetch('https://sendreward.com/api/v1/rewards', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'Authorization': `Bearer ${apiKey}`,
    'Idempotency-Key': orderId,
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    recipient_email: email,
    amount: 25,
    reference: orderId,
    message: 'Thanks for your order!',
  }),
});
const reward = await res.json();

Python

import requests

reward = requests.post(
    "https://sendreward.com/api/v1/rewards",
    headers={
        "Authorization": f"Bearer {api_key}",
        "Idempotency-Key": order_id,
    },
    json={
        "recipient_email": email,
        "amount": 25,
        "reference": order_id,
        "message": "Thanks for your order!",
    },
    timeout=15,
).json()

4. Check your balance before you send

One GET, and it tells you what you have to spend. This is also a good health check for your key.

curl https://sendreward.com/api/v1/balance \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sr_test_…"

{ "object": "balance", "mode": "test", "available": "1000.00", "currency": "USD" }

If a send would overdraw your balance you get 402 insufficient_balance and nothing is sent — so you can check first, or just handle the error.

5. Get told when a card is redeemed

Add an HTTPS endpoint under Notifications and SendReward will POST you a signed event on every status change: reward.sent, reward.delivered, reward.redeemed, reward.failed, reward.canceled. Verify the X-SendReward-Signature header with your endpoint secret, and handle events idempotently by their id — the same event can arrive twice. The signature verification snippets are in the reference.

6. Go live

When your integration works against the test key, create a live key in the dashboard, fund your balance (bank transfer is free), and swap the key string. Nothing else changes — the request shape, the response, the statuses and the webhooks are identical. That is the whole migration.

Frequently asked questions

Related: Full API reference · Stopping duplicate rewards · Why we don't charge a platform fee