Getting started with the Pinch API

Pinch is a payment collection API for Australian businesses. It lets you collect payments from customers via credit card or direct debit, manage recurring billing, and settle funds directly to your bank account.

This guide will get you from zero to your first payment. Most developers are making test API calls within 15 minutes.

Step 1: Create a developer account

Register for a free Pinch Developer Account. This gives you access to the Developer Portal and a sandbox environment where you can test without processing real payments.

Once registered, grab your Application ID, Secret Key, and Publishable Key, which will be displayed after you create a new application in the API Keys section of the portal.

Step 2: Understand the core concepts

Before writing code, spend 5 minutes with the API Core Concepts page. It explains how Merchants, Payers, Sources, Payments, and Transfers all fit together and will save you a lot of confusion later.

The short version:

Step 3: Choose your integration type

How you integrate with Pinch depends on the kind of platform you're building. There are three main patterns:

Single Merchant

You are building a product where you take payments directly from your own customers (for example, a SaaS subscription platform, an invoicing tool, or an e-commerce checkout). Your Pinch account is the merchant of record and you use one set of API credentials throughout.

→ Credit Card Payments · Direct Debit Payments · Plans and Subscriptions

Managed Merchants

You are building a platform that allows other businesses to create their own Pinch merchant accounts and take payments under their own merchant facilities (for example, a franchise management system or a marketplace). Each business has their own Pinch account; your platform manages them via the Managed Merchants API.

→ Managed Merchants Guide

Low-code / No-code

You want to connect Pinch to other tools without writing a custom integration. Pinch has native integrations with Zapier and n8n, which cover the most common payment and payer management actions with no code required.

→ Zapier · n8n

How to use the API

Once you know your integration type, here are the main ways to interact with Pinch:

Payment Links (hosted checkout)
Generate a payment link and send it to your customer. They complete payment on a Pinch-hosted page, with no frontend work required on your end. Useful for one-off payments and invoices.

Recurring Billing (Subscriptions)
Use Plans and Subscriptions to set up automatic recurring charges against a Payer's saved payment method. Pinch handles the schedule; you handle failures and retries based on webhook outcomes.

Direct API calls
Build fully custom payment flows using the REST API directly. See the Credit Card Payments and Direct Debit Payments guides for walkthroughs.

SDK

A .NET SDK is available that handles authentication, pagination, and webhook verification for you. The SDK is optional; all Pinch functionality is accessible via the REST API directly, so use whichever approach fits your stack. Check the Pinch Payments GitHub for samples in other languages.

Processing schedule

Understanding when Pinch processes payments and settles funds will help you set accurate expectations for your customers.

Direct debit payments submitted before a processing window will be picked up in that run. Settlements consolidate all successfully processed payments and transfer the net amount to your nominated bank account once per day.

Integration support and experience

We're here to help guide you through your integration from start to finish. Whether you're just exploring or ready to go live, you're welcome to reach out.

• Email us at [email protected] for integration help, architecture questions, or to get a hand with anything in the API.
• Pricing: see Developer pricing for Pinch for a full breakdown of fees.