Papercups

Papercups is an open-source customer-messaging and live-chat platform built on Elixir/Phoenix, positioned as a self-hosted alternative to Intercom. It exposes a REST API for conversations, messages, and customers, a realtime chat surface over Phoenix WebSocket channels, and outbound webhooks. The project is in maintenance mode (community-maintained, no major new features).

Papercups publishes 7 API contracts indexed on the APIs.io network, including Realtime Chat API (WebSocket / Phoenix Channels), Conversations API, Customers API, and 4 more. Tagged areas include Customer Messaging, Live Chat, Open Source, Support, and Intercom Alternative.

The Papercups catalog on APIs.io includes 1 event-driven AsyncAPI specification and 1 Spectral governance ruleset.

Papercups’ developer surface includes authentication, documentation, and 9 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Profile data on GitHub

30.8/100 thin ▬ flat Agent 20/100 agent aware Heartbeat 17/100 dormant open core · MIT Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-11-06 · rubric v0.27.0 · Show this score on your site →

AccessFreemiumSelf serve⚡ Free to try

1 published contract

Customer MessagingLive Chat Open Source SupportIntercom AlternativeReal-Time

What this lets a business do 1

Business capabilities this provider's published APIs can perform, derived from its own contracts. Browse all capabilities →

Customer Service Management

BC-430

ConversationsMessages

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-11-06 · rubric v0.27.0

Composite quality — 30.8/100 · thin

Contract Quality 9.8 / 19

Developer Ergonomics 4.3 / 15

Access Clarity 0.8 / 15

Operational Transparency 1.0 / 10

Contract Governance 1.0 / 9

Discoverability 5.0 / 8

Regulatory Posture 1.8 / 15

Create-or-Update Ergonomics 2.8 / 10

Agent readiness — 20/100 · agent aware

Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 10 / 10

Documented Reversibility 0 / 6

MCP Server 0 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 10 / 10

Idempotency 0 / 9

Stable Error Semantics 0 / 8

Request/Response Examples 0 / 7

Rate-Limit Signaling 7 / 7

Typed Event Surface 6 / 6

Agent Skills 0 / 5

Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4

Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3

A2A Agent Card 0 / 8

Dry-Run / Simulate Mode 0 / 4

Delegated User Identity 0 / 6

Protected Resource Metadata 0 / 5

Registration Without a Human 0 / 6

Agentic Commerce Well-Known Document 0 / 5

Pagination 0 / 5

Distinct Operations 3 / 3

MCP Tool Quality 6 / 6

Regulatory Posture applies to this provider. Its tags matched the Horizontal (data, software, accessibility, platform) regime, so Regulatory Posture carries 15 points of the composite. If this regime is wrong for your business, say so on your provider repo — the applicability map is public and we will correct it.

Create-or-Update Ergonomics applies to this provider. This API accepts writes, so it carries 10 points of the composite. It is scored from the published contracts themselves: whether a caller can create-or-update in one call, whether the write accepts a key the caller already holds, and whether the response says which branch ran. Without that, every write needs a search-and-branch in front of it, and the first time that check is skipped a duplicate record is created. Scored against the observed mean rather than raw — a provider at the catalog average is unchanged by this facet, not penalised by it.

The six quality facets above are damped to 75 points between them, because the conditional facet above carries the other 25. That is why each facet's contribution is shown against a damped maximum: raising a quality facet moves the composite by 75% of its nominal weight, not 100%. The full arithmetic is at apis.io/rating/.

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Agent readiness — checks not met, largest first (exact, from this profile):

MCP Server +12 pts — deployment.mode + probe verdict on the mcp/ manifest, not the pointer; an unprobed slug falls back to authorship
Idempotency +9 pts — OpenAPI mutating operations declare an idempotency key — a header, a request-body property, or a named de-duplication token whose own description says so (verified); else common[].type matches /idempoten/i (documented)
Stable Error Semantics +8 pts — OpenAPI $refs a shared error schema across 4xx/5xx responses (verified), else common[].type includes ErrorCatalog / ErrorCodes / DeclineCodes
A2A Agent Card +8 pts — a2a/-a2a.yml manifest, graded on conformance.grade against A2A 1.0.0
Request/Response Examples +7 pts — share of operations carrying request/response examples; else an Examples / Code Samples link
Registration Without a Human +6 pts — a `registration_endpoint` in the served RFC 8414 / OIDC discovery document

9 more unmet checks in the Agent Readiness table above.

Kin Score — facets with the most composite points still available (weight × headroom):

Access Clarity scores 5.3 — up to +18.9 composite points
Developer Ergonomics scores 28.6 — up to +14.3 composite points
Contract Quality scores 52.5 — up to +11.9 composite points

Each check links to what satisfies it. Publish the artifact, or tell us where it already lives, and the score moves on the next scoring run.

Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. Every facet and dimension name above is a link: it opens that measurement's own page — what it means, the exact checks that feed it, how the whole catalog distributes on it, and the providers at the top of it. This rating is computed from the provider profile at artifacts.apis.io/papercups/apis.yml: open an issue on github.com/api-evangelist/papercups to ask a question or point us at an artifact you publish. Submit an artifact on GitHub — free → Manage your own listing — the Influence plan, $499/mo →

Standards implemented 2

Standards this provider implements or carries. De facto ones are profiled and measured by the API Commons; formal ones come from the standards directory and are linked by the provider's own tags. The evidence column says how each claim was established — not that it was made.

OpenAPI

measured — observed by APIs.io (published)

AsyncAPI

measured — observed by APIs.io (published)

APIs 7

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

Papercups Notifications & Webhooks API

Outbound event subscriptions delivered as webhooks (message:created, conversation:created, conversation:updated, and a webhook:verify challenge handshake) notifying external sys...

Papercups Realtime Chat API (WebSocket / Phoenix Channels)

Bidirectional realtime live chat over Phoenix WebSocket channels. Clients join conversation, conversation-lobby, and account-room channels and exchange shout (message), messages...

Papercups Webhooks

Register external HTTPS endpoints to receive Papercups events as POSTed JSON payloads of shape { event, payload }, with a verify-challenge handshake on registration.

Papercups Conversations API

Threads of messages between customers and agents.

Papercups Customers API

Customer records (users, leads, or contacts).

Papercups Messages API

Individual messages within conversations.

Papercups Users API

Authenticated user and team members.

Scroll for all 7

Open Collections 5

Open, tool-agnostic API collections (OpenAPI-derived and Bruno).

Papercups Conversations API

OPEN COLLECTION

Papercups Conversations Customers API

OPEN COLLECTION

Papercups Conversations Messages API

OPEN COLLECTION

Papercups Conversations Users API

OPEN COLLECTION

Papercups API

OPEN COLLECTION

Papercups API pricing

Not yet checked against Papercups's own pricing page. Compiled by API Evangelist on 2026-06-20 from papercups.io; confirm before you rely on a figure. A free plan or tier is listed.

Plan	Price
Self-Hosted (Open Source) free	—
Hosted (SaaS) usage	—

Plan details, limits and sources →

Rate limits

REST API Requests: not documented requests
WebSocket Connections (Phoenix Channels): not documented connections
Webhook Delivery: not documented events

Compiled by API Evangelist, not yet checked against Papercups's documentation. Rate-limit details →

Pricing Plans 1

Published pricing tiers and plan structures.

Papercups Plans Pricing

2 plans

PLANS

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Papercups Rate Limits

3 limits

RATE LIMITS

Service Levels 1

Uptime the provider promises or reports, as SLA4OAI. Read from its own pages; APIs.io runs no monitors.

Papercups

SLA

FinOps 1

Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.

Papercups Finops

FINOPS

Event Specifications 1

AsyncAPI definitions for this provider's event-driven and streaming APIs.

Papercups Realtime Chat (WebSocket / Phoenix Channels)

AsyncAPI 2.6 description of Papercups' **realtime live chat** surface. Unlike many providers, Papercups exposes a genuine, bidirectional **WebSocket** transport: the chat widget...

ASYNCAPI

Spectral Rules 1

Spectral governance rulesets for linting and validating these APIs.

Papercups — asyncapi rules

6 rules · 1 errors 5 warnings

SPECTRAL

Security Posture 2

Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.

Papercups Authentication

http · 1 scheme

SECURITY

Papercups Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · HSTS · DNSSEC · DMARC

SECURITY

Agentic Access 1

Recommended x-agentic-access execution contracts for AI agents.

Papercups Agentic Access

15 operations · 8 acting

AGENTIC

Resources

Documentation 1

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Documentation

Documentation

Agent Surfaces 1

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

AgenticAccess

AgenticAccess

Build 1

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

GitHubOrganization

GitHubOrganization

Access & Security 2

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

DomainSecurity

DomainSecurity

Authentication

Authentication

Operate 1

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

RateLimits

RateLimits

Commercial 2

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

Plans

Plans

FinOps

FinOps

Company 2

The organization behind the API

LinkedIn

Website

Website

Other 1

Properties that don't map to a standard resource type

CapabilityMap

CapabilityMap

Source (apis.yml)

aid: papercups
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/papercups/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
name: Papercups
kind: company
description: Papercups is an open-source customer-messaging and live-chat platform built on Elixir/Phoenix, positioned as
  a self-hosted alternative to Intercom. It exposes a REST API for conversations, messages, and customers, a realtime chat
  surface over Phoenix WebSocket channels, and outbound webhooks. The project is in maintenance mode (community-maintained,
  no major new features).
deliveryModel:
  model: open-core
  license: MIT
  license_evidence:
    repo: papercups-io/papercups
    spdx: MIT
    stars: 6115
  open_source: true
  commercial: true
  callable_host: false
  label: Open core · an OSS project plus a commercial hosted product
  confidence: medium
  source:
  - openapi
  - pricing
  - repository-license
  generated: '2026-09-25'
  method: derived
accessModel:
  pricing: freemium
  onboarding: self-serve
  trial: false
  try_now: true
  public: false
  gated: none
  gated_source:
  - onboarding
  label: Freemium · Self-serve signup
  confidence: medium
  source:
  - plans
  - authentication
  - security
  generated: '2026-11-06'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/papercups.png
x-docs-platform: docusaurus
x-docs-platform-confidence: medium
x-docs-platform-checked: 2026-10-04
x-docs-hosting: vercel
tags:
- Customer Messaging
- Live Chat
- Open Source
- Support
- Intercom Alternative
- Real-Time
tags_raw:
- Customer Messaging
- Live Chat
- Open Source
- Support
- Intercom Alternative
- Open-Source
- Real-Time
created: '2026-06-20'
modified: '2026-06-20'
specificationVersion: '0.23'
apis:
- aid: papercups:notifications
  name: Papercups Notifications & Webhooks API
  tags:
  - Webhook
  - Notification
  - Event
  tags_raw:
  - Webhooks
  - Notifications
  - Events
  image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
  humanURL: https://docs.papercups.io/webhook-events
  baseURL: https://app.papercups.io/api/v1
  properties:
  - url: https://docs.papercups.io/webhook-events
    type: Documentation
  - url: https://github.com/papercups-io/papercups/wiki/Event-Subscriptions-with-Webhooks
    type: APIReference
  - url: https://github.com/papercups-io/papercups
    type: GitHub
  description: Outbound event subscriptions delivered as webhooks (message:created, conversation:created, conversation:updated,
    and a webhook:verify challenge handshake) notifying external systems of activity.
- aid: papercups:realtime-chat
  name: Papercups Realtime Chat API (WebSocket / Phoenix Channels)
  tags:
  - Real-Time
  - WebSocket
  - Phoenix Channels
  tags_raw:
  - Realtime
  - WebSocket
  - Phoenix Channels
  image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
  humanURL: https://docs.papercups.io/chat
  baseURL: wss://app.papercups.io/socket/websocket
  properties:
  - url: https://docs.papercups.io/chat
    type: Documentation
  - url: asyncapi/papercups-asyncapi.yml
    type: AsyncAPI
  - url: https://github.com/papercups-io/papercups
    type: GitHub
  description: Bidirectional realtime live chat over Phoenix WebSocket channels. Clients join conversation, conversation-lobby,
    and account-room channels and exchange shout (message), messages:seen, and presence events for two-way messaging.
- aid: papercups:webhooks
  name: Papercups Webhooks
  tags:
  - Webhook
  - Event
  - Integration
  tags_raw:
  - Webhooks
  - Events
  - Integrations
  image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
  humanURL: https://github.com/papercups-io/papercups/wiki/Event-Subscriptions-with-Webhooks
  baseURL: https://app.papercups.io/api/v1
  properties:
  - url: https://docs.papercups.io/webhook-events
    type: Documentation
  - url: https://github.com/papercups-io/papercups/wiki/Event-Subscriptions-with-Webhooks
    type: APIReference
  - url: https://github.com/papercups-io/webhooks-demo
    type: GitHub
  description: Register external HTTPS endpoints to receive Papercups events as POSTed JSON payloads of shape { event, payload
    }, with a verify-challenge handshake on registration.
- aid: papercups:papercups-conversations-api
  name: Papercups Conversations API
  description: Threads of messages between customers and agents.
  humanURL: https://docs.papercups.io/api-endpoints
  baseURL: https://app.papercups.io/api/v1
  tags:
  - Conversations
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/papercups-conversations-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.papercups.io/api-endpoints
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://docs.papercups.io/api-endpoints
  - type: GitHub
    url: https://github.com/papercups-io/papercups
- aid: papercups:papercups-customers-api
  name: Papercups Customers API
  description: Customer records (users, leads, or contacts).
  humanURL: https://docs.papercups.io/api-endpoints
  baseURL: https://app.papercups.io/api/v1
  tags:
  - Customers
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/papercups-customers-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.papercups.io/api-endpoints
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://docs.papercups.io/api-endpoints
  - type: GitHub
    url: https://github.com/papercups-io/papercups
- aid: papercups:papercups-messages-api
  name: Papercups Messages API
  description: Individual messages within conversations.
  humanURL: https://docs.papercups.io/api-endpoints
  baseURL: https://app.papercups.io/api/v1
  tags:
  - Message
  tags_raw:
  - Messages
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/papercups-messages-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.papercups.io/api-endpoints
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://docs.papercups.io/api-endpoints
  - type: GitHub
    url: https://github.com/papercups-io/papercups
- aid: papercups:papercups-users-api
  name: Papercups Users API
  description: Authenticated user and team members.
  humanURL: https://docs.papercups.io/api-endpoints
  baseURL: https://app.papercups.io/api/v1
  tags:
  - User
  tags_raw:
  - Users
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/papercups-users-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.papercups.io/api-endpoints
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://docs.papercups.io/api-endpoints
  - type: GitHub
    url: https://github.com/papercups-io/papercups
common:
- type: CapabilityMap
  url: capabilities/papercups-capability-edges.yml
  name: Papercups Business Capability Map
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/papercups-agentic-access.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/papercups-domain-security.yml
- type: Authentication
  url: authentication/papercups-authentication.yml
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/papercups-io
- type: LinkedIn
  url: https://www.linkedin.com/company/papercups
- type: Website
  url: https://papercups.io
- type: Documentation
  url: https://docs.papercups.io
- type: Plans
  url: plans/papercups-plans-pricing.yml
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/papercups-rate-limits.yml
- type: FinOps
  url: finops/papercups-finops.yml
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com

Papercups API — frequently asked questions

Does Papercups have an API?

Yes. APIs.io lists 7 APIs from Papercups, including Papercups Notifications & Webhooks API, Papercups Realtime Chat API (WebSocket / Phoenix Channels) and Papercups Webhooks, and 4 more.

Is there an OpenAPI specification for the Papercups API?

Yes. APIs.io indexes 4 OpenAPI specifications for Papercups, each linked for download from this page.

How do I authenticate with the Papercups API?

Papercups uses bearer-token authentication (http · 1 scheme). The details are profiled on APIs.io as Papercups Authentication.

How much does the Papercups API cost?

APIs.io lists 2 pricing plans for Papercups, with each plan's price, limits and inclusions under Pricing on this page.

Is the Papercups API ready for AI agents?

Papercups has a Kin Score of 30.8 out of 100 (thin) and an Agent Readiness score of 20.0 (agent-aware), scored by API Evangelist on 2026-11-06.

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