brackets-curlyREST API documentation

This documentation is for developers interested in using the GOV.UK Notify API to send emails, text messages or letters.

You can use it to integrate directly with the API if you cannot use one of our 6 client libraries.

Developers can also use our OpenAPI file with tools such as Swaggerarrow-up-right and Redocarrow-up-right to assist with using the REST API. You cannot use Swagger Editor to make test API requests.

Making a request

Base URL

https://api.notifynl.nl

Headers

Authorisation header

The authorisation header is an API key that is encoded using JSON Web Tokensarrow-up-right. You must include an authorisation header.

JSON Web Tokens have a standard header and a payload. The header consists of:

{
  "typ": "JWT",
  "alg": "HS256"
}

The payload consists of:

{
  "iss": "26785a09-ab16-4eb0-8407-a37497a57506",
  "iat": 1568818578
}

JSON Web Tokens are encoded using a secret key with the following format:

That secret key forms a part of your API key, which follows the format {key_name}-{iss-uuid}-{secret-key-uuid}.

For example, if your API key is my_test_key-26785a09-ab16-4eb0-8407-a37497a57506-3d844edf-8d35-48ac-975b-e847b4f122b0:

  • your API key name is my_test_key

  • your iss (your service id) is 26785a09-ab16-4eb0-8407-a37497a57506

  • your secret key is 3d844edf-8d35-48ac-975b-e847b4f122b0

iat (issued at) is the current time in UTC in epoch seconds. The token expires within 30 seconds of the current time.

Refer to the JSON Web Tokens websitearrow-up-right for more information on encoding your authorisation header.

When you have an encoded and signed token, add that token to a header as follows:

Content header

The content header is application/json:

Send a message

You can use GOV.UK Notify to send emails, text messages and letters.

Bulk sending

You cannot use a single API call to send messages in bulk.

To send a batch of messages, use the API to loop over your recipient list, sending one message at a time to each recipient.

Make sure you do not exceed our rate limits.

Send a text message

Method

Request body

Arguments

phone_number (required)

The phone number of the recipient of the text message. This can be a UK or international number.

For example:

template_id (required)

To find the template ID:

  1. Go to the Templates page and select the relevant template.

  2. Select Copy template ID to clipboard.

For example:

personalisation (optional)

If a template has placeholder fields for personalised information such as name or reference number, you must provide their values in a dictionary with key value pairs. For example:

You can leave out this argument if a template does not have any placeholder fields for personalised information.

reference (optional)

An identifier you can create if necessary. This reference identifies a single unique message or a batch of messages. It must not contain any personal information such as name or postal address. For example:

You can leave out this argument if you do not have a reference.

sms_sender_id (optional)

A unique identifier of the sender of the text message notification.

To find the text message sender:

  1. Go to the Settings page.

  2. In the Text Messages section, select Manage on the Text Message sender row.

You can then either:

  • copy the sender ID that you want to use and paste it into the method

  • select Change to change the default sender that the service will use, and select Save

You can leave out this argument if your service only has one text message sender, or if you want to use the default sender.

Response

If the request is successful, the response body is json with a status code of 201:

If you are using the test API key, all your messages will come back with a delivered status.

All messages sent using the team and guest list or live keys will appear on your dashboard.

Error codes

If the request is not successful, the API returns json containing the relevant error code. To learn more about error structure, go to Errors sectionarrow-up-right.

Error message
How to fix

ValidationError (status code 400)

phone_number Too many digits

Provide a valid recipient phone number.

phone_number Not enough digits

Provide a valid recipient phone number.

phone_number Not a UK mobile number

Provide a valid British recipient phone number.

phone_number Must not contain letters or symbols

Provide a valid recipient phone number.

phone_number Not a valid country prefix

Provide a valid recipient phone number.

BadRequestError (status code 400)

sms_sender_id <sms_sender_id> does not exist in database for service id <service id>

Go to your service Settings and copy a valid sms_sender_id. Check that the API key you are using and the sms_sender_id belong to the same service.

Cannot send to this recipient when service is in trial mode - see https://www.notifications.service.gov.uk/trial-mode

Your service cannot send this text message in trial modearrow-up-right. To fix, you need to request for your service to go live.

Cannot send to international mobile numbers

Sending to international mobile numbers is turned off for your service. You can change this in your service Settings.

In addition to the above, you may also encounter:

  • various schema validation errors, for example when you forget to pass in an argument, or pass in an argument of a wrong type.

  • errors that are not related to sending a text message, but instead are related to things like authentication and rate limits. You can find a list of these errors in General errors.

Send an email

Method

Request body

Arguments

email_address (required)

The email address of the recipient.

For example:

template_id (required)

To find the template ID:

  1. Go to the Templates page and select the relevant template.

  2. Select Copy template ID to clipboard.

For example:

personalisation (optional)

If a template has placeholder fields for personalised information such as name or reference number, you need to provide their values in a dictionary with key value pairs. For example:

You can leave out this argument if a template does not have any placeholder fields for personalised information.

Find out how to reduce the risk of malicious content injection in placeholdersarrow-up-right.

reference (optional)

An identifier you can create if necessary. This reference identifies a single unique email or a batch of emails. It must not contain any personal information such as name or postal address. For example:

You can leave out this argument if you do not have a reference.

one_click_unsubscribe_url (recommended)

If you send subscription emails you must let recipients opt out of receiving them. Read our Using Notify page for more information about unsubscribe linksarrow-up-right.

The one-click unsubscribe URL will be added to the headers of your email. Email s will use it to add an unsubscribe button.

The one-click unsubscribe URL must respond to an empty POST request by unsubscribing the user from your emails. You can include query parameters to help you identify the user.

Your unsubscribe URL and response must comply with the guidance specified in Section 3.1 of IETF RFC 8058arrow-up-right.

You can leave out this argument if the email being sent is not a subscription email.

You must also add an unsubscribe link to the bottom of your email. The unsubscribe link at the bottom of your email should take the email recipient to a webpage where they can confirm that they want to unsubscribe.

Find out how to add a link when you create a New template or Edit an email template.

email_reply_to_id (optional)

This is an email address specified by you to receive replies from your users. You must add at least one reply-to email address before your service can go live.

To add a reply-to email address:

  1. Go to the Settings page.

  2. In the Email section, select Manage on the Reply-to email addresses row.

  3. Select Add reply-to address.

  4. Enter the email address you want to use, and select Add.

For example:

You can leave out this argument if your service only has one reply-to email address, or you want to use the default email address.

Response

If the request is successful, the response body is json with a status code of 201:

Reducing the risk of malicious content injection in placeholders

Notify lets you personalise messages using placeholders.

You can format content or add links and urls into placeholders using Markdown.

If you pass in information from untrusted sources (such as online forms) into your Notify template using personalisation, this may be used to add malicious content and links to notifications you send via Notify.

The malicious content could be:

  • Markdown syntax intended to be rendered into HTML

  • a plain text URL which would be rendered into a clickable phishing link

An example of how malicious content can be injected into Notify personalisation:

Template in Notify:

Personalisation:

Email will appear as:

We recommend you sanitise all input from untrusted sources to prevent the injection of malicious content. You can use a backslash to escape individual charactersarrow-up-right. The characters of most concern are those that could be used to add a URL link such as [, ], ( or ).

Error codes

If the request is not successful, the API returns json containing the relevant error code. To learn more about error structure, go to Errors section.

Error message
How to fix

ValidationError (status code 400)

email_address Not a valid email address

Provide a valid recipient email address.

one_click_unsubscribe_url is not a valid https url

Provide a valid https url for your unsubscribe link.

BadRequestError (status code 400)

email_reply_to_id <reply to id> does not exist in database for service id <service id>

Go to your service Settings and copy a valid email_reply_to_id. Double check that the API key you are using and the email_reply_to_id belong to the same service.

Emails cannot be longer than 2000000 bytes. Your message is <rendered template size in bytes> bytes.

Shorten your email message.

Cannot send to this recipient when service is in trial mode - see https://www.notifications.service.gov.uk/trial-mode

Your service cannot send this email in trial modearrow-up-right. To fix, you need to request for your service to go live.

In addition to the above, you may also encounter:

Send a file by email

To send a file by email, add a placeholder to the template then upload a file. The placeholder will contain a secure link to download the file.

The links are unique and unguessable. GOV.UK Notify cannot access or decrypt your file.

Your file will be available to download for a default period of 26 weeks (6 months).

To help protect your files you can also:

  • ask recipients to confirm their email address before downloading

  • choose the length of time that a file is available to download

Add contact details to the file download page

  1. Go to the Settings page.

  2. In the Email section, select Manage on the Send files by email row.

  3. Enter the contact details you want to use, and select Save.

Add a placeholder to the template

  1. Go to the Templates page and select the relevant email template.

  2. Select Edit.

  3. Add a placeholder to the email template using double brackets. For example: “Download your file at: ((link_to_file))”

Your email should also tell recipients how long the file will be available to download.

Upload your file

You can upload the following file types:

  • CSV (.csv)

  • image (.jpeg, .jpg, .png)

  • Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet (.xlsx)

  • Microsoft Word Document (.doc, .docx)

  • PDF (.pdf)

  • text (.json, .odt, .rtf, .txt)

Your file must be smaller than 2MB. Contact the NotifyNL teamarrow-up-right if you need to send other file types.

You’ll need to convert the file into a string that is base64 encoded.

Pass the encoded string into an object with a file key, and put that in the personalisation argument. For example:

Set the filename

You should provide a filename when you upload your file.

The filename should tell the recipient what the file contains. A memorable filename can help the recipient to find the file again later.

The filename must end with a file extension. For example, .csv for a CSV file. If you include the wrong file extension, recipients may not be able to open your file.

If you do not provide a filename for your file, Notify will:

  • generate a random filename

  • try to add the correct file extension

If Notify cannot add the correct file extension, recipients may not be able to open your file.

Ask recipients to confirm their email address before they can download the file

When a recipient clicks the link in the email you’ve sent them, they have to enter their email address. Only someone who knows the recipient’s email address can download the file.

This security feature is turned on by default.

Turn off email address check (not recommended)

If you do not want to use this feature, you can turn it off on a file-by-file basis.

You should not turn this feature off if you send files that contain:

To let the recipient download the file without confirming their email address, set the confirm_email_before_download flag to false.

Choose the length of time that a file is available to download

Set the number of weeks you want the file to be available using the retention_period key.

You can choose any value between 1 week and 78 weeks. When deciding this, you should consider:

  • the need to protect the recipient’s personal information

  • whether the recipient will need to download the file again later

If you do not choose a value, the file will be available for the default period of 26 weeks (6 months).

Files sent before 12 April 2023 had a longer default period of 78 weeks (18 months).

Response

If the request is successful, the response body is json with a status code of 201:

Error codes

If the request is not successful, the API returns json containing the relevant error code. To learn more about error structure, go to Errors section.

Error message
How to fix

BadRequestError (status code 400)

Unsupported file type '(FILE TYPE)'. Supported types are: '(ALLOWED TYPES)'

Wrong file type. You can only upload .csv, .doc, .docx, .jpeg, .jpg, .odt, .pdf, .png, .rtf, .txt or .xlsx files

filename cannot be longer than 100 characters

Choose a shorter filename

filename must end with a file extension. For example, filename.csv

Include the file extension in your filename

Unsupported value for retention_period '(PERIOD)'. Supported periods are from 1 to 78 weeks.

Choose a period between 1 and 78 weeks

Unsupported value for confirm_email_before_download: '(VALUE)'. Use a boolean true or false value.

Use either True or False

File did not pass the virus scan

The file contains a virus

Send files by email has not been set up - add contact details for your service at https://www.notifications.service.gov.uk/services/(SERVICE ID)/service-settings/send-files-by-email

Can only send a file by email

Make sure you are using an email template

Client error (no status code)

ValueError('File is larger than 2MB')

The file is too big. Files must be smaller than 2MB.

In addition to the above, you may also encounter:

Send a letter

When you add a new service it will start in trial mode. You can only send letters when your service is live.

To send Notify a request to go live:

  1. Go to the Settings page.

  2. In the Your service is in trial mode section, select request to go live.

Method

Request body

Arguments

template_id (required)

To find the template ID:

  1. Go to the Templates page and select the relevant template.

  2. Select Copy template ID to clipboard.

For example:

personalisation (required)

The personalisation argument always contains the following parameters for the letter recipient’s address:

  • address_line_1

  • address_line_2

  • address_line_3

  • address_line_4

  • address_line_5

  • address_line_6

  • address_line_7

The address must have at least 3 lines.

The last line needs to be a real UK postcode or the name of a country outside the UK.

Notify checks for international addresses and will automatically charge you the correct postage.

The postcode personalisation argument has been replaced. If your template still uses postcode, Notify will treat it as the last line of the address.

Any other placeholder fields included in the letter template also count as required parameters. You need to provide their values in a dictionary with key value pairs. For example:

reference (optional)

An identifier you can create if necessary. This reference identifies a single unique letter or a batch of letters. It must not contain any personal information such as name or postal address. For example:

Response

If the request is successful, the response body is json and the status code is 201:

Error codes

If the request is not successful, the API returns json containing the relevant error code. To learn more about error structure, go to Errors section.

Error message
How to fix

ValidationError (status code 400)

personalisation address_line_1 is a required property

Ensure that your template has a field for the first line of the address, check personalisationarrow-up-right for more information.

Must be a real UK postcode

Ensure that the value for the last line of the address is a real UK postcode.

Must be a real address

Provide a real recipient address. We do not accept letters for “no fixed abode” addresses, as those cannot be delivered.

Last line of address must be a real UK postcode or another country

Ensure that the value for the last line of the address is a real UK postcode or the name of a country outside the UK.

The last line of a BFPO address must not be a country.

The last line of a BFPO address must not be a country.

Address must be at least 3 lines

Provide at least 3 lines of address.

Address must be no more than 7 lines

Provide no more than 7 lines of address.

Address lines must not start with any of the following characters: @ ( ) = [ ] ” \ / , < >

Change the start of an address line, so it doesn’t start with one of these characters. This is a requirement from our printing provider.

postage invalid. It must be either first, second or economy.

Specify valid postage option.

BadRequestError (status code 400)

Cannot send letters when service is in trial mode - see https://www.notifications.service.gov.uk/trial-mode

Your service cannot send this letter in trial modearrow-up-right.

Service is not allowed to send letters

Turn on sending letters in your service Settings on GOV.UK Notify webpage

letter_contact_id <letter_contact_id> does not exist in database for service id <service id>

Go to your service Settings and copy a valid letter_contact_id. Check that the API key you are using and the letter_contact_id belong to the same service.

BadRequestError (status code 403)

Cannot send letters with a team api key

Use the correct type of API keyarrow-up-right.

In addition to the above, you may also encounter:

Send a precompiled letter

Request body

Arguments

reference (required)

An identifier you create. This reference identifies a single unique precompiled letter or a batch of precompiled letters. It must not contain any personal information such as name or postal address.

content (required)

The precompiled letter must be a PDF file which meets the GOV.UK Notify letter specificationarrow-up-right. You’ll need to convert the file into a string that is base64 encoded.

postage (optional)

You can choose first class, second class or economy mail postage for your precompiled letter. Set the value to first for first class, second for second class or economy for economy mail. If you do not pass in this argument, the postage will default to second class.

Response

If the request is successful, the response body is json and the status code is 201:

Error codes

If the request is not successful, the API returns json containing the relevant error code. To learn more about error structure, go to Errors section.

Error message
How to fix

ValidationError (status code 400)

reference is a required property

Add a reference argument to the method call

postage invalid. It must be either first, second or economy.

Change the value of postage argument in the method call to either "first", "second" or "economy"

BadRequestError (status code 400)

Letter content is not a valid PDF

PDF file format is required.

Cannot send letters when service is in trial mode - see https://www.notifications.service.gov.uk/trial-mode

Your service cannot send this precompiled letter in trial modearrow-up-right.

BadRequestError (status code 403)

Cannot send letters with a team api key

Use the correct type of API keyarrow-up-right.

In addition to the above, you may also encounter:

Get message data

Get the data for one message

You can only get the data for messages sent within the retention period. The default retention period is 7 days.

Method

URL parameters

notification_id (required)

The ID of the notification. To find the notification ID, you can either:

Response

If the request is successful, the response body is json and the status code is 200:

Error codes

If the request is not successful, the API returns json containing the relevant error code. To learn more about error structure, go to Errors section.

Error message
How to fix

ValidationError (status code 400)

id is not a valid UUID

Check the notification ID.

NoResultFound (status code 404)

No result found

If it’s outside the retention period, you may no longer get the status of the message. The default retention period is 7 days.

In addition to the above, you may also encounter:

  • various schema validation errors, for example when you forget to pass in an argument, or pass in an argument of a wrong type.

  • errors that are not related to getting the status of a message, but instead are related to things like authentication and rate limits. You can find a list of these errors in General errors

Get the data for multiple messages

This API call returns one page with data for up to 250 messages. You can get either the most recent messages, or get older messages by specifying a particular notification ID in the older_than argument.

You can only get messages that are within your data retention period. The default data retention period is 7 days. It can be changed in your Service Settings.

You can filter the returned messages by including the following optional arguments in the method:

Query parameters

You can omit any of these arguments to ignore these filters.

template_type (optional)

You can filter by:

  • email

  • sms

  • letter

status (optional)

You can filter by each:

You can leave out this argument to ignore this filter.

You can filter on multiple statuses by repeating the query string.

reference (optional)

An identifier you can create if necessary. This reference identifies a single unique message or a batch of messages. It must not contain any personal information such as name or postal address. For example:

You can leave out this argument to ignore this filter.

older_than (optional)

Input a notification ID into this argument. If you use this argument, the method returns the next 250 messages older than the given ID.

If you leave out this argument, the method returns the most recent 250 messages.

The API only returns messages sent within the retention period. The default retention period is 7 days. If the message specified in this argument was sent before the retention period, the API returns an empty response.

include_jobs (optional)

Includes notifications sent as part of a batch upload.

If you leave out this argument, the method only returns notifications sent using the API.

Response

If the request is successful, the response body is json and the status code is 200.

All messages

Error codes

If the request is not successful, the API returns json containing the relevant error code. To learn more about error structure, go to Errors section.

Error message
How to fix

ValidationError (status code 400)

status ‘elephant’ is not one of [cancelled, created, sending, sent, delivered, pending, failed, technical-failure, temporary-failure, permanent-failure, pending-virus-check, validation-failed, virus-scan-failed, returned-letter, accepted, received]

‘Apple’ is not one of [sms, email, letter]

In addition to the above, you may also encounter:

Email status descriptions

Status
Description

created

GOV.UK Notify has placed the message in a queue, ready to be sent to the provider. It should only remain in this state for a few seconds.

sending

GOV.UK Notify has sent the message to the provider. The provider will try to deliver the message to the recipient for up to 72 hours. GOV.UK Notify is waiting for delivery information.

delivered

The message was successfully delivered.

permanent-failure

The provider could not deliver the message because the email address was wrong. You should remove these email addresses from your database.

temporary-failure

The provider could not deliver the message. This can happen when the recipient’s inbox is full or their anti-spam filter rejects your email. Check your content does not look like spamarrow-up-right before you try to send the message again.

technical-failure

Your message was not sent because there was a problem between Notify and the provider. You’ll have to try sending your messages again.

Text message status descriptions

Status
Description

created

GOV.UK Notify has placed the message in a queue, ready to be sent to the provider. It should only remain in this state for a few seconds.

sending

GOV.UK Notify has sent the message to the provider. The provider will try to deliver the message to the recipient for up to 72 hours. GOV.UK Notify is waiting for delivery information.

pending

GOV.UK Notify is waiting for more delivery information. GOV.UK Notify received a callback from the provider but the recipient’s device has not yet responded. Another callback from the provider determines the final status of the text message.

sent

The message was sent to an international number. The mobile networks in some countries do not provide any more delivery information. The GOV.UK Notify website displays this status as ‘Sent to an international number’.

delivered

The message was successfully delivered. If a recipient blocks your sender ID or mobile number, your message will still show as delivered.

permanent-failure

The provider could not deliver the message. This can happen if the phone number was wrong or if the network operator rejects the message. If you’re sure that these phone numbers are correct, you should contact GOV.UK Notify supportarrow-up-right. If not, you should remove them from your database. You’ll still be charged for text messages that cannot be delivered.

temporary-failure

The provider could not deliver the message. This can happen when the recipient’s phone is off, has no signal, or their text message inbox is full. You can try to send the message again. You’ll still be charged for text messages to phones that are not accepting messages.

technical-failure

Your message was not sent because there was a problem between Notify and the provider. You’ll have to try sending your messages again. You will not be charged for text messages that are affected by a technical failure.

Letter status descriptions

Status
Description

accepted

GOV.UK Notify has sent the letter to the provider to be printed.

received

The provider has printed and dispatched the letter.

cancelled

Sending cancelled. The letter will not be printed or dispatched.

technical-failure

GOV.UK Notify had an unexpected error while sending the letter to our printing provider.

permanent-failure

The provider cannot print the letter. Your letter will not be dispatched.

Precompiled letter status descriptions

Status
Description

accepted

GOV.UK Notify has sent the letter to the provider to be printed.

received

The provider has printed and dispatched the letter.

cancelled

Sending cancelled. The letter will not be printed or dispatched.

pending-virus-check

GOV.UK Notify has not completed a virus scan of the precompiled letter file.

virus-scan-failed

GOV.UK Notify found a potential virus in the precompiled letter file.

validation-failed

Content in the precompiled letter file is outside the printable area. See the GOV.UK Notify letter specificationarrow-up-right for more information.

technical-failure

GOV.UK Notify had an unexpected error while sending the letter to our printing provider.

permanent-failure

The provider cannot print the letter. Your letter will not be dispatched.

Get a PDF for a letter notification

Method

This returns the PDF contents of a letter.

URL parameters

notification_id (required)

The ID of the notification. To find the notification ID, you can either:

Response

If the request to the API is successful, the API will return bytes representing the raw PDF data.

Error codes

If the request is not successful, the API returns json containing the relevant error code. To learn more about error structure, go to Errors section.

Error message
How to fix

ValidationError (status code 400)

id is not a valid UUID

Check the notification ID.

Notification is not a letter

Check that you are looking up the correct notification.

PDFNotReadyError (status code 400)

PDF not available yet, try again later

Wait for the letter to finish processing. This usually takes a few seconds.

BadRequestError (status code 400)

File did not pass the virus scan

You cannot retrieve the contents of a letter that contains a virus.

PDF not available for letters in technical-failure

You cannot retrieve the contents of a letter in technical-failure.

Notification is not a letter

Check that you are looking up the correct notification.

NoResultFound (status code 404)

No result found

Check the notification ID.

In addition to the above, you may also encounter:

Get a template

Get a template by ID

Method

This returns the latest version of the template.

URL parameters

template_id (required)

The ID of the template. Sign in to NotifyNLarrow-up-right and go to the Templates page to find it.

Response

If the request is successful, the response body is json and the status code is 200.

Error codes

If the request is not successful, the API returns json containing the relevant error code. To learn more about error structure, go to Errors section.

Error message
How to fix

NoResultFound (status code 404)

No Result Found

In addition to the above, you may also encounter:

Get a template by ID and version

Method

URL parameters

template_id (required)

The ID of the template. Sign in to NotifyNLarrow-up-right and go to the Templates page to find it.

version (required)

The version number of the template.

Response

If the request is successful, the response body is json and the status code is 200.

Error codes

If the request is not successful, the API returns json containing the relevant error code. To learn more about error structure, go to Errors section.

Error message
How to fix

NoResultFound (status code 404)

No Result Found

In addition to the above, you may also encounter:

Get all templates

Method

This returns the latest version of all templates.

Query parameters

template_type (optional)

If you leave out this argument, the method returns all templates. Otherwise you can filter by:

  • email

  • sms

  • letter

Response

If the request is successful, the response body is json and the status code is 200.

If no templates exist for a template type or there no templates for a service, the API returns a json object with a templates key for an empty array:

Generate a preview template

Method

This generates a preview version of a template.

URL parameters

template_id (required)

The ID of the template. Sign in to NotifyNLarrow-up-right and go to the Templates page to find it.

Request body

Arguments

personalisation (required)

If a template has placeholder fields for personalised information such as name or reference number, you need to provide their values in a dictionary with key value pairs. For example:

The keys in the personalisation argument must match the placeholder fields in the actual template. The API will ignore any extra keys in the personalisation argument.

Response

If the request is successful, the response body is json and the status code is 200.

Error codes

If the request is not successful, the API returns json containing the relevant error code. To learn more about error structure, go to Errors section.

Error message
How to fix

BadRequestError (status code 400)

Missing personalisation: [PERSONALISATION FIELD]

Check that the personalisation arguments in the method match the placeholder fields in the template.

NoResultFound (status code 404)

No Result Found

In addition to the above, you may also encounter:

Get received text messages

This API call returns one page of up to 250 received text messages. You can get either the most recent messages, or get older messages by specifying a particular notification ID in the older_than query parameter.

You can only get the data for messages that are 7 days old or newer.

Enable received text messages

To receive text messages:

  1. Go to the Text message settings section of the Settings page.

  2. Select Change on the Receive text messages row.

Get a page of received text messages

Method

You can specify which text messages to receive by inputting the ID of a received text message into the older_thanarrow-up-right argument.

Query parameters

older_than (optional)

Input the ID of a received text message into this argument. If you use this argument, the method returns the next 250 received text messages older than the given ID.

Response

If the request is successful, the response body is json and the status code is 200.

Error codes

If the request is not successful, the API returns json containing the relevant error code. To learn more about error structure, go to Errors section.

There are no errors specific to this endpoint, but you may encounter:

Errors

Error handling

If the request is not successful, the API returns json containing:

  • a status code, for example 403

  • an error type, for example AuthError

  • a message, for example Invalid token: service not found

For example:

Do not use the content of the messages in your code. These can sometimes change, which may affect your API integration.

Use the status code or the error type instead, as these will not change.

General errors

You may encounter following errors when making requests to a number of Notify’s API endpoints.

Error message
How to fix

BadRequestError (status code 400)

Cannot send to this recipient using a team-only API key.

Use a live API key, or add recipient to Guest list (located in API Integration section)

Cannot send to this recipient when service is in trial mode – see https://www.notifications.service.gov.uk/trial-mode

You need to request for your service to go live before you can send messages to people outside your team.

BadRequestError (status code 403)

Error: Your system clock must be accurate to within 30 seconds

Check your system clock

Invalid token: API key not found

Use the correct API key. Refer to API keysarrow-up-right for more information

RateLimitError (status code 429)

Exceeded rate limit for key type <team/test/live> of 3000/<custom limit> requests per 60 seconds

Refer to API rate limitsarrow-up-right for more information

TooManyRequestsError (status code 429)

Exceeded send limits (<sms/email/letter/international_sms>: <LIMIT SIZE>) for today

Refer to service limitsarrow-up-right for the limit size

Exception (status code 500)

Internal server error

Notify was unable to process the request, resend your notification.

Schema validation errors

The following are a few examples of schema validation errors you may encounter when making a request to a Notify endpoint.

Error message
How to fix

ValidationError (status code 400)

template_id is a required property

Provide the missing argument.

sms_sender_id is not a valid UUID

Check the argument to make sure that it is valid for the given data type.

personalisation <data type of argument you sent> is not of type object

Provide argument in the correct type.

reference <reference string you provided> is too long

Provide a shorter string.

type <invalid type> is not one of [sms, email, letter]

Make sure that the argument matches one of the items in the list.

Additional properties are not allowed (<list of unexpected properties> was unexpected)

Only provide allowed arguments for the endpoint.

Endpoint-specific errors

In addition to the above, you may also encounter endpoint-specific errors, which are listed under each relevant API endpoint section.

Find references for endpoint-specific errors in:


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