--- updatedAt: 2026-08-26T17:11:54.000Z --- Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.mercury.com/llms.txt. Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. Append .md to any documentation page URL to get its markdown version. # Send Money Pay recipients from your Mercury accounts over ACH, check, domestic wire, and international wire, with optional approval controls. Initiate payouts directly from your systems via Mercury's API across ACH, check, domestic wire, and international wire. For working code, see these recipes: * [Send an ACH payment](/recipes/send-an-ach-payment) * [Request a payment approval](/recipes/request-a-payment-approval) * [Send an international wire](/recipes/send-an-international-wire) * [Invite a recipient](/recipes/invite-a-recipient) For every field and response, see the [Accounts](/reference/accounts), [Recipients](/reference/recipients), and [Send Money Requests](/reference/sendmoney) API reference. ## What You Can Build * **Automate Payouts**: Trigger ACH, wire, or check payments automatically as soon as a bill is approved in your AP system. * **Gate Disbursements**: Queue transactions via API for manual review and sign-off inside the Mercury dashboard prior to release of funds. * **Pay at Scale**: Send payments to many recipients from a single background job or scheduled worker, looping through your recipient list. ## Capabilities * **Supported**: Mercury handles it. * **Client-Side**: The endpoints exist and the logic runs in your code. * **Not Available Today**: There is no API route for this today. Please submit feedback on ways we can improve to . ### Recipients | Capability | Status | Notes | | ------------------------------------------- | --------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Create, update, and delete recipients | Supported | A recipient is a saved payee, with the bank details for one or more payment methods | | Invite a recipient to add their own details | Supported | The recipient enters their own bank details, which keeps sensitive data protected and reduces risk of error due to manual entry. This is how you set up a recipient for an international wire | | List and retrieve recipients | Supported | Read only | ### Send Money | Capability | Status | Notes | | ----------------------------------------- | ------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Send a payment directly | Supported | `POST /account/{accountId}/transactions` sends ACH, check, or domestic wire | | Queue a payment for approval | Supported | `POST /account/{accountId}/request-send-money` holds the payment for approval in the Mercury dashboard before release of funds | | Pay many recipients at once | Client-Side | To pay multiple recipients, cycle through your recipient list and send one payment per recipient from your own system | | Send an international wire | Supported | Queue it for approval with `POST /account/{accountId}/request-send-money` using `paymentMethod: internationalWire` and a `purpose`. Direct send does not support it. Set up the recipient through a [recipient invite](/recipes/invite-a-recipient) or the dashboard. See [Send an international wire](/recipes/send-an-international-wire) for the full walkthrough, and Sending international payments for who can send international wires and supported locations. | | Send by real-time payment (RTP) or FedNow | Not Available Today | You cannot select RTP or FedNow as a send method today via API. See more details on real-time payment support | ### Approvals and Tracking | Capability | Status | Notes | | ----------------------------- | --------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Track an approval request | Supported | `GET /request-send-money` and `GET /request-send-money/{requestId}` | | Track a payment to completion | Supported | Subscribe to webhooks or poll the transaction's `status`. See [Events](#events) and [Track a Payment](#track-a-payment) | ### Events Subscribe to webhooks to follow payouts as they move, and poll for status when you need it. See [Webhooks](/reference/webhooks) to set up delivery. | Event | Fires When | Use It To | | --------------------- | -------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | | `transaction.created` | A payment becomes a transaction | Confirm a send has entered the pipeline | | `transaction.updated` | A transaction's `status` changes | Follow it to `sent`, or catch `failed`, `reversed`, or `blocked` | | Approval requests | No event today | Poll `GET /request-send-money/{requestId}` for status instead | **Approval requests and transactions are tracked in different ways:** * **Approval request (no webhook):** While a payment sits in `pendingApproval`, poll `GET /request-send-money/{requestId}` to follow it. * **Transaction (webhooks):** Once the request is approved it becomes a transaction, and the `transaction.created` and `transaction.updated` events apply from that point. ### Internal Transfers | Capability | Status | Notes | | ------------------------------------ | --------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Move money between your own accounts | Supported | `POST /transfer` moves funds between two Mercury accounts you own, no recipient required | ## Before You Start | Step | Detail | | ---------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **API Token Scopes** | Read actions require a read-only token. Sending money and managing recipients require a read-write token, or a `Custom` token scoped to the endpoint you call. See [Getting Started](/docs/getting-started) | | **Pick Your Send Path** | `POST /account/{accountId}/transactions` only accepts requests from an IP address you have allowlisted. `POST /account/{accountId}/request-send-money` has no such requirement, because dashboard approval is the control. See [API token security policies](/docs/api-token-security-policies) and [Choose a Send Path](#choose-a-send-path) | | **Test in Sandbox** | Test recipient creation and transactions in Mercury's sandbox before going live. See [Using the Mercury Sandbox](/docs/using-mercury-sandbox) | | **Find Your Source Account** | Call `GET /accounts` and note the `id` of the account you want to send money from | ## Choose a Send Path There are two ways to send money, each with its own account-level endpoint. | | `createTransaction` | `requestSendMoney` | | ------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Endpoint | `POST /account/{accountId}/transactions` | `POST /account/{accountId}/request-send-money` | | Behavior | Submits the payment immediately. It does not run your organization's approval rules, so a payment that must be approved has to go through `requestSendMoney` | Always queues the payment for approval in the Mercury dashboard, regardless of policy | | Auth requirement | Requires IP allowlist | No IP allowlist (approval in the dashboard is the control) | | Approver | None, unless your organization's approval rules require one | An authorized user with send-money permission. By default that is someone other than the token creator, unless your approval rules allow the requester to approve their own payment | | Payment methods | `ach`, `check`, `domesticWire` | `ach`, `check`, `domesticWire`, `internationalWire` | | International wire | Not supported | Supported, with a required `purpose` | | Response | `Transaction` object | `SendMoneyApprovalRequestResponse` object | A couple of things to keep in mind when you choose: * **No fixed IP address? Use `requestSendMoney`.** It relies on dashboard approval instead of an IP allowlist, so there is no allowlist to maintain. * **International wires go through `requestSendMoney` only**, not direct send. Set up the recipient with a [recipient invite](/recipes/invite-a-recipient) or in the dashboard first, then send with `paymentMethod: internationalWire` and a `purpose`. Refer to [Send an ACH payment](/recipes/send-an-ach-payment) for direct routing, or [Request a payment approval](/recipes/request-a-payment-approval) for gated workflows. ## Common Workflows Best practices for paying many recipients at once and for tracking a payment through to completion. ### Pay Many Recipients * **One Payment Per Request**: Send one payment request per recipient using a client-side loop when paying multiple recipients. Send them sequentially rather than in parallel, and back off if a request fails. * **Give Each Payment Its Own `idempotencyKey`**: Record each payment's status immediately, so a restarted loop knows what already went out and never re-sends a finished payment. * **Respect the 24-Hour Duplicate Guard on `createTransaction`**: By default, sending the same recipient, account, amount, and payment method again within 24 hours returns `400`, even with a different `idempotencyKey`. ### Track a Payment **Standard Transactions** Track a sent payment two ways: * **Webhooks (event-driven)**: Subscribe to `transaction.created` and `transaction.updated` for status changes. See [Webhooks](/reference/webhooks). * **Polling**: Query `GET /account/{accountId}/transaction/{transactionId}` on your own schedule. **Status:** Successful payments move from `pending` to `sent`. Otherwise they land on `cancelled`, `failed`, `reversed`, or `blocked`. **Approval-Based Payments (`requestSendMoney`)** A queued request is not a transaction until it clears approval. 1. **Track the Request**: Poll `GET /request-send-money/{requestId}` (or `GET /request-send-money` to list open requests) and read `status`. 2. **On Approval**: When `status` moves from `pendingApproval` to `approved`, the request becomes a transaction. Track it with the standard methods above. ## Objects and Endpoints Parameters and response schemas are in [Accounts](/reference/accounts), [Recipients](/reference/recipients), and [Send Money Requests](/reference/sendmoney). For the base URL and the auth header, see [Getting Started](/docs/getting-started). | Object | What It Holds | Endpoints | | --------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Recipient** | Payee name, email, and routing details for one or more payment methods | `GET /recipients`, `POST /recipients`, `GET /recipient/{recipientId}`, `POST /recipients/invites`, `GET /recipients/invites/{inviteId}` | | **Payment (send)** | The instruction to pay a recipient over ACH, check, or wire | `POST /account/{accountId}/transactions`, `POST /account/{accountId}/request-send-money` | | **Approval request** | The status of a payment queued through `requestSendMoney`, including who has reviewed it | `GET /request-send-money`, `GET /request-send-money/{requestId}` | | **Transaction** | The record of a payment that has moved, including its status and delivery date | `GET /account/{accountId}/transaction/{transactionId}`, `GET /account/{accountId}/transactions` | | **Internal transfer** | A movement of funds between two Mercury accounts you own | `POST /transfer` |