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Paylead powers bank-linked cashback. Your bank sends transactions, Paylead matches them against active Offers, and your Consumers earn Rewards, with no codes, vouchers, or clicks. This page walks you from zero to a working API call. By the end, you have a valid bearer token, a chosen environment, and a verified response from the Paylead sandbox.

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Before you start

You need:
  • A Program Manager account in Shift.
  • A REST client (curl, Postman, or your language’s HTTP library).
  • Five minutes to read, ten to copy-paste.

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Make your first call

1

Get credentials and an access token

Sign in to the sandbox Shift () with your Program Manager account, then create an API client under Settings > API Keys (see API keys). Copy the client_secret immediately; Paylead shows it once.Exchange the client_id and client_secret for a short-lived access token. See Authentication for the two-step flow.
2

Choose your environment

Use the sandbox for integration work. Switch to production only after Paylead validates your integration.
EnvironmentBase URL
Sandbox
Production
Replace {programRef} with your Program’s identifier, issued by Paylead at onboarding. See Environments for the full comparison.
3

Call the Paylead API

List the Brands available in your Program. Pass your access token as a bearer credential and set the mandatory X-Api-Version header (for example 2.0.0). This is a safe read-only call that confirms your token works.
Code examples coming soon. The Paylead API (v2) is still under construction. Request and response examples for this section will be published once the contract is finalized. In the meantime, contact your Paylead account manager for early-access details.
4

Read the response

A successful call returns 200 OK and a JSON array of Brands.
Code examples coming soon. The Paylead API (v2) is still under construction. Request and response examples for this section will be published once the contract is finalized. In the meantime, contact your Paylead account manager for early-access details.
If you see 401 Unauthorized, your token is wrong or expired. See Errors.
You received a 200 OK and a JSON payload. Your integration is connected to the Paylead sandbox.

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What’s next

Explore the deeper guides for your use case.

Authentication

Token format, header, and key rotation.

Environments

Move from sandbox to production safely.

Errors

HTTP codes, Paylead error codes, and remediation.