Paystack API
Official vendor OpenAPI document · agent-readyPaymentsPayment Processingbearer83 EndpointsREST
For Agents
Accept payments, manage subscriptions, process refunds, and handle transfers for African merchants across cards, bank transfers, mobile money, and USSD channels.
Use for: I need to initialize a payment for a customer in Nigeria, I want to create a subscription plan with monthly billing, Check whether a transaction was successfully verified, List all failed transactions from the past week
Not supported: Does not handle accounting, invoicing, or tax calculation - use for payment collection and fund transfers only.
Paystack API enables businesses across Africa to accept payments via cards, bank transfers, mobile money, and USSD channels. It supports transaction initialization and verification, subscription management, refund processing, and multi-party split payments. The API also handles customer identity verification, dedicated virtual account assignment, and dispute resolution for merchants operating in Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, and Kenya.
Install Jentic One Beta
Connect the Paystack API to your agent
Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the Paystack API, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.
Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.
1
Step 1: Jentic One Host machine
# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Fpaystack.com%2Fpaystack" | sh2
Step 2: Agent machine
# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Fpaystack.com%2Fpaystack" | sh
jentic register # connects your agent to your Jentic One instanceJentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.
Capabilities
What an agent can do with Paystack API.
Initialize and verify card, bank transfer, and mobile money payments across African markets
Create subscription plans with automated recurring billing and dunning
Process refunds and manage dispute resolution with evidence uploads
Assign dedicated virtual accounts (DVAs) to customers for bank transfer collection
Split payments across multiple subaccounts for marketplace settlement
Transfer funds to bank accounts and mobile wallets via single or bulk payouts
Verify customer identity with BVN and document validation
Use Cases
Patterns agents use Paystack API for, with concrete tasks.
★ E-Commerce Payment Collection
Accept one-time payments for online stores targeting African customers. Paystack handles card validation, bank transfer confirmation, and mobile money collection across Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, and Kenya. Merchants initialize a transaction, redirect the customer to Paystack's hosted page or use the inline popup, and verify the transaction upon callback. The API supports 4 currencies (NGN, GHS, ZAR, KES) and settles funds to the merchant's bank account on a T+1 or next-business-day schedule.
Initialize a transaction for 5000 NGN with the customer email customer@example.com, then verify the transaction reference after payment completion
Subscription Billing for SaaS
Set up recurring billing for subscription-based products serving African markets. Paystack manages plan creation, customer enrollment, automatic charge attempts, and failed-payment retries. Merchants can create plans with daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual intervals. The API sends webhook notifications for successful charges, failed attempts, and subscription cancellations, enabling automated dunning flows.
Create a monthly plan for 2500 NGN named 'Pro Plan', then subscribe a customer with authorization code AUTH_xxx to that plan
Marketplace Split Payments
Distribute payments across multiple parties in a marketplace or platform model. Paystack's transaction splits let platforms define percentage or flat-fee splits between the main account and subaccounts. This handles vendor payouts, platform commissions, and tax withholding in a single transaction without manual settlement reconciliation.
Create a transaction split that allocates 80% to subaccount ACCT_xxx and 20% to the main account, then initialize a 10000 NGN payment using that split
Bulk Payouts to Bank Accounts
Send money to multiple recipients via bank transfer in a single batch. Paystack's transfer API supports individual and bulk transfers to Nigerian bank accounts and mobile wallets. Each transfer requires a pre-registered recipient with verified account details. The API provides real-time transfer status and webhook notifications for successful or failed disbursements.
Create a transfer recipient for account number 0123456789 at bank code 058, then initiate a bulk transfer of 50000 NGN split across 3 recipients
AI Agent Payment Automation via Jentic
AI agents use the Paystack API through Jentic to automate payment collection, verify transaction statuses, and trigger refunds without handling raw secret keys. Agents search for payment operations by intent, receive typed schemas for each endpoint, and execute calls with Jentic managing credential isolation and response validation. This reduces integration time from days to under an hour for agent-driven commerce workflows.
Search Jentic for 'verify a Paystack transaction', load the transaction verification schema, and execute a verification call for reference REF_abc123
Key Endpoints
83 endpoints — paystack api enables businesses across africa to accept payments via cards, bank transfers, mobile money, and ussd channels.
METHOD
PATH
DESCRIPTION
POST
/transaction/initialize
Initialize a new payment transaction
GET
/transaction/verify/{reference}
Verify a transaction by reference
POST
/subscription
Create a new subscription
POST
/refund
Process a refund
POST
/transfer
Initiate a single transfer
POST
/transfer/bulk
Initiate bulk transfers
POST
/split
Create a transaction split
POST
/dedicated_account
Assign a dedicated virtual account
POST
/transaction/initialize
Initialize a new payment transaction
GET
/transaction/verify/{reference}
Verify a transaction by reference
POST
/subscription
Create a new subscription
POST
/refund
Process a refund
POST
/transfer
Initiate a single transfer
POST
/transfer/bulk
Initiate bulk transfers
POST
/split
Create a transaction split
POST
/dedicated_account
Assign a dedicated virtual account
Why Jentic?
What agents get from Jentic-routed access to this vendor.
Setup
Wiring the Paystack API by hand means managing its secret-key bearer auth and stitching together transaction, transfer, and subscription flows yourself. Through Jentic you install once, import Paystack from the API Directory, store the secret key once, and your agent calls it.
Permission scoping
Paystack passes its transaction and transfer details in the request body, so scope the agent by the operations it needs, such as initializing a transaction or verifying one by reference. You choose that set, so fund-moving operations like transfer, bulk transfer, or refund are not included unless you add them.
Credential isolation
Your Paystack secret key is stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected at execution time. It never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context.
Intent-based discovery
Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'accept a payment in Nigeria' or 'verify a transaction', and Jentic returns the matching Paystack operation with its typed request and response schemas so the agent calls the right endpoint without parsing the reference docs.
Related APIs
Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.
Alternative
Stripe API
Global payment processor with deeper feature set but limited African payment method support
Choose Stripe when the merchant operates globally and African payment methods are secondary to card processing in Western markets.
FAQs
Specific to using Paystack API through Jentic.
What authentication does the Paystack API use?
The Paystack API uses Bearer token authentication with your secret key passed in the Authorization header. Through Jentic, your Paystack secret key is stored encrypted in the credential vault and agents receive scoped access tokens without the raw key entering the agent context.
Can I process mobile money payments with the Paystack API?
Yes. The Paystack API supports mobile money as a payment channel alongside cards, bank transfers, and USSD. You initialize a transaction via POST /transaction/initialize specifying the mobile_money channel, and the customer completes payment on their handset.
What are the rate limits for the Paystack API?
Paystack applies rate limits per secret key. The standard limit is 50 requests per second for transaction endpoints. Bulk operations like POST /transfer/bulk count as a single request regardless of the number of transfers included.
How do I verify a payment through Jentic?
Search Jentic for 'verify paystack transaction', load the returned schema for GET /transaction/verify/{reference}, and execute the call with the transaction reference. Jentic handles the Bearer token injection and returns the transaction status, amount, and currency in a structured response.
Does the Paystack API support split payments for marketplaces?
Yes. You create a split configuration via POST /split defining subaccounts with percentage or flat-amount shares. Then attach the split ID when initializing transactions. Paystack automatically distributes settlement funds across all parties.
Which countries does the Paystack API support?
Paystack supports merchants in Nigeria (NGN), Ghana (GHS), South Africa (ZAR), and Kenya (KES). Each country has specific payment methods available including cards, bank transfers, mobile money, and USSD depending on the market.
Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the Paystack API?
Yes. Because you run your own self-hosted Jentic One instance, your own rules decide which Paystack operations and credentials the agent may use. Since Paystack passes transaction and transfer details in the request body, you scope the agent to just the operations it needs, such as initializing a transaction with POST /transaction/initialize or verifying one with GET /transaction/verify/{reference}. Fund-moving operations like transfer, bulk transfer, or refund stay out of reach unless you explicitly add them to the allowed set.
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