With ShipStation API Carriers you can start shipping your orders right away! Please note that some carriers may require additional approval before you can access their services. ShipStation API Carriers provide immediate access to multiple carriers with our pre-negotiated preferred rates. There is no need to open and manage your own separate carrier accounts (but you can do that, too). Additionally, you'll purchase all ShipStation API Carrier labels using the funds in your ShipStation API Balance. Instead of managing payments for multiple postal accounts, use just one balance for all labels!
Once you activate ShipStation API Carriers, you can create labels using any of the available services immediately.
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Activate ShipStation API Carriers in your ShipStation API account
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Add funds to your ShipStation API Balance
Each carrier may also have specific requirements for shipping with them. Review any of the following articles for details about each carrier's requirements, services, and available features:
To start using ShipStation API Carriers, you must activate it by adding the payment method you wish to use for your labels. Log in to the ShipStation API dashboard and do the following:
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Follow the on-screen instructions to select a subscription plan and add your billing details.
Once complete, your available carriers will be visible in the Setup > Carriers section, where you can find each carrier's unique Carrier ID. You can also make a List Carriers call to view all of your Carrier IDs and available services.
ShipEngine Carrier accounts for a US-based account.
Next, you'll want to add funds to your ShipStation API Balance (see the next section for details).
After activating ShipStation API Carriers, you must add funds to create labels. All labels you create with ShipEngine Carriers will use funds added to your ShipStation API Balance.
To add funds to your ShipStation API Balance:
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Log in to ShipStation API.
We recommend auto-funding to ensure your postage balance never falls below a set threshold amount. This will help you avoid interruptions to your workflow when creating labels.
To set ShipStation API to auto-fund your balance:
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Go to the Auto-Funding tab and toggle auto-funding On. Set the minimum balance before more postage is automatically purchased.
For example, if you wanted to purchase $250 any time your account balance is below $25, set the When balance falls below amount to ‘25’ and set the Add the following amount to ‘250’. Then enter the maximum number of times ShipStation API can automatically purchase postage in a day.
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Click Save.
About Auto-Funding
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This feature tells ShipStation API to add funds when we detect the ShipStation API Balance has fallen under your set threshold at the time of your label purchase.
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The minimum purchase amount is $10 regardless of currency type. The maximum purchase amount is $10,000 regardless of currency type.
You may need to void a label if, for example, a shipment was canceled or a label was created by mistake. Go to our Void Labels guide to see how to use the void label endpoint.
After a void request is accepted, the label fee will be refunded to your ShipStation API balance. Please note, a label cannot be unvoided. However, you can create a new label if needed.
When voiding ShipStation API Carrier labels, the label fee will be instantly refunded to your ShipStation API Balance. To receive a refund for labels created with ShipStation API Carriers, you must meet the following criteria:
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The label must be unused. This means that the label was not scanned by the carrier.
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You must void the label within 28 days of generating the label.
Errors are generally returned by the carrier when the label has passed the void deadline or the shipment was already delivered to its final destination.
