Get unstuck, fast
Answers to the questions developers actually ask, organized by what you’re trying to do — not an alphabetical dump. If you can’t find it here, the full FAQ and every guide are one click away.
Getting started
Create an account, get your first API key, and make your first call.
Pricing & billing
What costs money, what’s free, and exactly how much.
Merchant connections
Requesting scoped access to a merchant’s account, and what they see.
Vision & messaging
Scanning products from photos and sending WhatsApp receipts.
Webhooks & events
Reacting to sales, purchase orders, and low stock in real time.
Errors & retries
What every error response looks like, and how to retry safely.
Most-asked questions
Which endpoints actually cost money per call?+
Only two: POST /api/v1/scan (3¢ per successful call) and POST /api/v1/whatsapp/send (2¢ per successful send). POST /api/v1/ask is free within your monthly plan quota. All prices are per successful call — a failed or rejected request is never billed.
How do I avoid double-charging on a retry?+
Send a client-generated Idempotency-Key header (a UUID works) on POST /api/v1/scan or POST /api/v1/whatsapp/send. Retrying with the same key returns your original response instead of running the action again.
What’s the difference between an account-mode and generic-mode key?+
An account-mode key is tied to a real AskBiz business and automatically pulls its profile and inventory context. A generic-mode key has no connected account and must supply its own context — and cannot call POST /api/v1/whatsapp/send at all.
How do I get access to a merchant who isn’t my own account?+
Call POST /api/v1/connections to create a pending connection request. The merchant approves it from a real, hosted confirmation page — they see exactly which scopes you asked for and can narrow, but never widen, them.
My key is being rate-limited — what are the actual limits?+
Per-minute: free = 5/min, growth = 60/min, business = 120/min. Monthly quotas: free = 100/month, growth = 10,000/month, business = unlimited. Every response includes X-RateLimit-Limit and X-RateLimit-Remaining headers so you can track usage without guessing.
I can’t find the answer here — how do I reach a person?+
Email hello@askbiz.co with your API key’s prefix (never the full key) and a description of what you’re seeing. For account or billing issues, sign in and use the dashboard — it has more context than we can ask for over email.
Still stuck?
Email us with your API key’s prefix (never the full key) and what you’re seeing — a real person reads every message.
hello@askbiz.co