Read this when you don’t have an API key yet. You can’t make one yourself: the seller (the person whose PrintShrimp account you’ll work in) creates the account and the key. This page tells you what to ask for, how the key is used, and gives you the message to send them.
In short
- An AI agent cannot create a PrintShrimp account or an API key. The seller signs up at app.printshrimp.com, creates a key under Tools → Developer, and hands it to you.
- Every request goes to
https://api.printshrimp.com/functions/v1with the key in anx-api-keyheader. - Every key is live. There is no test mode or sandbox, so an order you create is a real order.
- A key has full access to the seller’s account. Keep it in a secret store, never in a prompt, a repository or a URL.
- Prove the key works with one read-only call:
GET /api-get-pricing?country=GB. A 200 means you’re in; a 401 means the key is wrong, missing or revoked.
Who does what
You work inside the seller’s account, with their key, and everything you do is attributed to them. The seller is the account holder and the seller of record for their own customers; accounts are for business use, by people over 18, and can’t be transferred. The split below is fixed by the product, so plan around it:
| Task | Who | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Create the account | Seller | app.printshrimp.com |
| Create, copy and revoke API keys | Seller | Tools → Developer |
| Pay for orders by card, top up the wallet, switch auto-pay on or off | Seller | Settings → Payment and Settings → Order Automation |
| Connect Etsy or Shopify | Seller | Tools → Integrations |
| Create and edit listing templates | Seller | Bulk List → Templates |
| Publish listing drafts to Etsy or Shopify | Seller | Bulk List (the Listing Hub) |
| Cancel a paid order or report a problem with it | Seller | Paid Orders |
| Quote prices, save products and bundles, create listing drafts, place orders, read status and tracking | You | The API |
How the seller gets a key
- Sign up at app.printshrimp.com with a name, email and password (a WhatsApp number is optional) and confirm the verification email. Signing up is free, with no monthly fees or minimums for printing. A seller who already has an account skips this step.
- Open Tools → Developer (app.printshrimp.com/developer) and click Create Key.
- Copy the key straight away. It is shown once and can’t be viewed again; a lost key is replaced by revoking it and creating another.
- Store it where the agent reads secrets from, such as an environment variable or a secrets manager, and let the agent know it’s there.
The API works on every plan, including Free. An account can hold up to 10 active keys, keys never expire, and Revoke in Tools → Developer takes effect immediately. If more than one agent or integration uses the account, ask for a key each, so one can be revoked without stopping the others.
The message to send the seller
Send this as it is, or adapt it. Replace the text in square brackets first. It asks for the key and for the three settings that change what your calls do.
Hi. To work in your PrintShrimp account I need an API key, and only you can make one.
1. Sign in at https://app.printshrimp.com (sign-up is free if you don’t have an account yet), go to Tools → Developer and click Create Key. Copy it immediately, because it’s only shown once.
2. Rather than pasting the key into this chat, put it in [your secret store or environment variable name] and tell me when it’s there. The key gives full access to your account, including placing orders that get printed and charged, so it should live somewhere private. You can revoke it at any time in Tools → Developer.
3. Please tell me how three settings are set, because they decide what happens when I act: Settings → Order Automation → “Auto-pay from wallet” (on or off, and the delay); your wallet balance under Settings → Payment; and whether Etsy or Shopify is connected under Tools → Integrations.
Why those three settings matter
Auto-pay from wallet. With it on, Ready orders created through the API are paid from the seller’s wallet once they have waited the chosen delay (Immediately, 1 hour, 3, 6, 12 or 24 hours; 1 hour by default) and go into production. With it off, every API order waits unpaid in Create Orders until the seller pays it by hand. So with auto-pay on, your create-order call ends in a printed, charged order; with it off, it ends in a pending one. Auto-pay only ever uses the wallet, never a card; it runs every 15 minutes and pays up to 20 orders per run, oldest first, and only if the wallet covers the whole batch.
Wallet balance. If the wallet can’t cover a batch, nothing is paid, the orders wait, and the seller is emailed to top up. You can’t top up the wallet or pay by card through the API, so a low balance is something to raise with the seller, not something you can fix.
Integrations. Whether Etsy or Shopify is connected decides which jobs make sense. With Etsy connected, orders can import, pay and ship without you (see Sell on Etsy). Without either, you place orders yourself, one per sale (see Sell Prints Anywhere). The default paper settings under Settings → Printing only affect imported orders; API orders set paper per item.
Send the key with every request
The base URL is https://api.printshrimp.com/functions/v1. Put the key in an x-api-key header, or send it as Authorization: Bearer <key>; the two are equivalent. The call below is read-only, uses no credits and charges nothing, so it is the right first test:
GET https://api.printshrimp.com/functions/v1/api-get-pricing?country=GB
x-api-key: YOUR_KEYA 200 with a list of prices per size means the key works. A 401 means the key is wrong, missing or revoked, in which case ask the seller to check Tools → Developer rather than retrying. Rate limits are counted per account, shared across all of its keys, so extra keys don’t raise them (see Limits and Errors).
Key safety rules
- A key can do everything the account can: place orders that get printed and charged, delete products, and read buyers’ delivery addresses, which are personal data. Treat it like a password.
- Never put the key in a prompt, a code repository, a URL or query string, or a log.
- Never pass the key to another agent, tool or service. If something else needs access, the seller creates a separate key for it.
- If a key may have leaked, tell the seller immediately so they can revoke it in Tools → Developer. Revoking is instant and the other keys keep working.
- Closing the account revokes every key.
What this page doesn’t cover
- Your first calls and why create-order is real: Quickstart.
- Rate limits, error codes and safe retries: Limits and Errors.
- Artwork rights and what gets an account suspended: Rules.
Next
Next: Quickstart · Back to the hub: PrintShrimp for AI agents
Last updated 19 October 2026.
