Quickstart
Send your first SMS in under 5 minutes. Follow these steps to go from zero to a working integration.
Prerequisites
- A free AfriRoute account — create one here
- A terminal or HTTP client (curl, Postman, or any SDK)
- Basic understanding of REST APIs
1
Create an account
Sign up for a free AfriRoute account. No credit card required. You get immediate access to the sandbox environment with test credits.
Create free account2
Get your API keys
Navigate to Console → Settings → API Keys. You will find two keys:
Sandbox Key
Prefixed sk_test_
Production Key
Prefixed sk_live_
3
Send your first message
Use the sandbox API key to send a test SMS. No charges in sandbox mode.
POST /api/v1/channels/sms/otp
curlcurl -X POST BASE_URL/api/v1/channels/sms/otp -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_SANDBOX_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"to": "+2519XXXXXXXX",
"country": "ET",
"template": "Your verification code is 123456"
}'200 OK — Response
json{
"message_id": "msg_abc123def456",
"status": "queued",
"to": "+2519XXXXXXXX",
"segments": 1,
"cost": "0.00",
"environment": "sandbox"
}4
Verify delivery
Check the delivery status via the API or set up webhooks for real-time delivery receipts in production.
GET /api/v1/channels/sms/{messageId}
curlcurl BASE_URL/api/v1/channels/sms/msg_abc123def456 \
-H "X-API-Key: YOUR_SANDBOX_KEY"200 OK — Response
json{
"message_id": "msg_abc123def456",
"status": "delivered",
"delivered_at": "2026-02-15T12:01:03Z",
"carrier": "Ethio Telecom",
"segments": 1
}