Africa's Talking SMS API

openapi: 3.0.1
info:
  title: Africa's Talking Airtime SMS API
  description: 'Unified REST API for Africa''s Talking communications products: SMS (single, bulk, premium, subscriptions), USSD callbacks, Voice (call, transfer, media upload, queue status), Airtime, Mobile Data, and Payments (mobile C2B checkout, B2C, B2B). Requests authenticate with an `apiKey` header and a `username` parameter. Hosts differ per product: messaging, airtime, and subscriptions live under api.africastalking.com/version1; voice under voice.africastalking.com; mobile data under bundles.africastalking.com; and payments under payments.africastalking.com. Sandbox equivalents insert `.sandbox.` into each host.'
  termsOfService: https://africastalking.com/terms
  contact:
    name: Africa's Talking Support
    url: https://help.africastalking.com
  version: version1
servers:
- url: https://api.africastalking.com/version1
  description: Messaging, Airtime and Subscription production host
- url: https://api.sandbox.africastalking.com/version1
  description: Messaging, Airtime and Subscription sandbox host
- url: https://voice.africastalking.com
  description: Voice production host
- url: https://bundles.africastalking.com
  description: Mobile Data production host
- url: https://payments.africastalking.com
  description: Payments production host
security:
- apiKey: []
tags:
- name: SMS
  description: Send single and bulk SMS and fetch inbox messages.
paths:
  /messaging:
    post:
      operationId: sendMessage
      tags:
      - SMS
      summary: Send SMS
      description: Send a single or bulk SMS to one or more recipients. Set `bulkSMSMode` to 1 for bulk delivery. Provide a registered `from` short code or sender ID where available.
      requestBody:
        required: true
        content:
          application/x-www-form-urlencoded:
            schema:
              $ref: '#/components/schemas/SendMessageRequest'
      responses:
        '201':
          description: Message accepted for delivery.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/SendMessageResponse'
        '400':
          description: Bad request.
        '401':
          description: Unauthorized - missing or invalid apiKey.
    get:
      operationId: fetchMessages
      tags:
      - SMS
      summary: Fetch inbox messages
      description: Retrieve messages sent to your registered short codes or sender IDs.
      parameters:
      - name: username
        in: query
        required: true
        schema:
          type: string
      - name: lastReceivedId
        in: query
        required: false
        description: ID of the message last processed; 0 fetches from the start.
        schema:
          type: string
          default: '0'
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Inbox messages.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/FetchMessagesResponse'
components:
  schemas:
    SendMessageRequest:
      type: object
      required:
      - username
      - to
      - message
      properties:
        username:
          type: string
          description: Your Africa's Talking application username.
        to:
          type: string
          description: Comma-separated recipient phone numbers in international format.
          example: +254711XXXYYY,+254733YYYZZZ
        message:
          type: string
          description: The message body to send.
        from:
          type: string
          description: Registered short code or alphanumeric sender ID.
        bulkSMSMode:
          type: integer
          description: Set to 1 to enable bulk SMS delivery.
          enum:
          - 0
          - 1
          default: 1
        enqueue:
          type: integer
          description: Set to 1 to enqueue large outbound batches.
          enum:
          - 0
          - 1
        keyword:
          type: string
          description: Premium SMS keyword (premium SMS only).
        linkId:
          type: string
          description: Link identifier from an onDemand premium SMS subscription.
        retryDurationInHours:
          type: integer
          description: Hours to retry premium SMS delivery before discarding.
    SendMessageResponse:
      type: object
      properties:
        SMSMessageData:
          type: object
          properties:
            Message:
              type: string
              example: 'Sent to 1/1 Total Cost: KES 0.8000'
            Recipients:
              type: array
              items:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/Recipient'
    FetchMessagesResponse:
      type: object
      properties:
        SMSMessageData:
          type: object
          properties:
            Messages:
              type: array
              items:
                type: object
                properties:
                  linkId:
                    type: string
                  text:
                    type: string
                  to:
                    type: string
                  id:
                    type: integer
                  date:
                    type: string
                  from:
                    type: string
    Recipient:
      type: object
      properties:
        statusCode:
          type: integer
          example: 101
        number:
          type: string
          example: +254711XXXYYY
        status:
          type: string
          example: Success
        cost:
          type: string
          example: KES 0.8000
        messageId:
          type: string
          example: ATPid_SampleTxnId123
  securitySchemes:
    apiKey:
      type: apiKey
      in: header
      name: apiKey
      description: Africa's Talking API key generated from your account dashboard.