# Paydude API overview

URL: https://www.paydude.io/resources/paydude-api-overview
Type: Guide
Published: 2026-09-05 · Updated: 2026-09-05
Summary: The Paydude REST API: payments, customers, subscriptions, refunds, payouts and webhooks, with typed SDKs and an official MCP server for AI agents.

**The Paydude API is a REST API covering payments, customers, subscriptions, refunds, payouts and webhooks**, authenticated with a bearer secret key. Billing sits in the same API as processing rather than as a separate product.

## Summary

Six resources: payments, customers, subscriptions, refunds, payouts, webhooks. Bearer auth; sandbox keys need no signup gate. Typed SDKs alongside the plain REST API, with stable error codes. An official MCP server gives AI agents typed tools rather than scraped docs.

## Getting started

```bash
curl https://sandbox-api.paydude.com/v1/payments \
  --request POST \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -u "$PAYDUDE_API_KEY:" \
  --data '{"amount": 4900, "currency": "usd", "source": "tok_test"}'
```

Amounts are in the smallest currency unit, so 4900 is $49.00 — the standard convention, and the one that avoids floating-point errors in money.

## Resources

**The API surface**

| Resource | What it covers |
| --- | --- |
| payments | Creating, capturing and retrieving charges |
| customers | Stored customers and their payment tokens |
| subscriptions | Recurring billing, at no additional percentage |
| refunds | Full and partial refunds |
| payouts | Standard, next-day and instant transfers to your bank |
| webhooks | Signed event delivery for asynchronous results |

## The MCP server

Paydude publishes an official Model Context Protocol server, so an AI coding agent works from typed payment tools rather than from documentation it has scraped and may have misread.

```bash
# Run directly
npx -y @paydude/mcp

# Add to Claude Code
claude mcp add paydude -- npx -y @paydude/mcp

# Auth: a sandbox secret key. No signup gate.
export PAYDUDE_API_KEY=sk_sandbox_...
```

The tools it exposes are deliberately narrow and typed: create and refund sandbox payments, search transactions, scaffold checkout, and explain fees for a given volume.

> **Why typed tools beat scraped docs:** An agent reading documentation guesses at parameter names and shapes, and the errors surface at runtime. An agent calling a typed tool cannot construct an invalid request — which is the difference between an integration that works first time and one you debug afterwards.

## Reliability primitives

- **Idempotent writes.** A retried request cannot create a second charge.
- **Signed webhooks.** Every event carries a signature you verify before trusting it.
- **Stable error codes.** Codes do not change between releases, so error handling written once keeps working.
- **Drop-in card fields.** Card data is captured in Paydude's environment, never yours.

Documentation lives at paydude.com/docs and publishes an llms.txt, so an AI agent can consume it directly.

**Try it in the sandbox** Sandbox keys work immediately, with no signup. — [See the quickstart](https://www.paydude.io/#developers)

## Frequently asked questions

### What resources does the Paydude API expose?

Payments, customers, subscriptions, refunds, payouts and webhooks. Billing lives in the same API as processing rather than being a separate product, which is why subscriptions and invoices carry no additional percentage.

### How do I authenticate?

Bearer authentication with your Paydude secret key. The sandbox base URL is https://sandbox-api.paydude.com, and sandbox keys need no signup gate — you can make a test call immediately.

### Is there an MCP server?

Yes, an official one. Install with npx -y @paydude/mcp, or in Claude Code with claude mcp add paydude -- npx -y @paydude/mcp. It exposes typed payment tools rather than scraped documentation: creating and refunding sandbox payments, searching transactions, scaffolding checkout and explaining fees for a given volume.

### What SDKs are available?

Typed SDKs including Node and Python, alongside the plain REST API. The API is designed to behave the way you would expect from a REST API, with stable error codes.