Quick Start: Authenticated Requests

This guide shows you how to make authenticated requests to the Kalshi API in three simple steps. For the full production and demo endpoint list, see API Environments and Endpoints.

Step 1: Get Your API Keys

Log in to your Kalshi account (demo or production)
Navigate to Account & security → API Keys
Click Create Key
Save both:
- Private Key: Downloaded as a PEM text file
- API Key ID: Displayed on screen (looks like a952bcbe-ec3b-4b5b-b8f9-11dae589608c)

Your private key cannot be retrieved after this page is closed. Store it securely!

Step 2: Set Up Your Request

Every authenticated request to Kalshi requires three headers:

Header	Description	Example
`KALSHI-ACCESS-KEY`	Your API Key ID	`a952bcbe-ec3b-4b5b-b8f9-11dae589608c`
`KALSHI-ACCESS-TIMESTAMP`	Current time in milliseconds	`1703123456789`
`KALSHI-ACCESS-SIGNATURE`	Request signature (see below)	`base64_encoded_signature`

How to Create the Signature

The signature proves you own the private key. Here’s how it works:

Create a message string: Concatenate timestamp + HTTP_METHOD + path
- Example: 1703123456789GET/trade-api/v2/portfolio/balance
- Important: Sign the full URL path from the API root, without query parameters. For https://external-api.demo.kalshi.co/trade-api/v2/portfolio/orders?limit=5, sign /trade-api/v2/portfolio/orders.
Sign with your private key: RSA keys use RSA-PSS with SHA-256; Ed25519 keys sign the message directly.
Encode as base64: Convert the signature to base64 string

The signing process in Python, for either key type:

import base64
from cryptography.hazmat.primitives import hashes
from cryptography.hazmat.primitives.asymmetric import padding
from cryptography.hazmat.primitives.asymmetric.ed25519 import Ed25519PrivateKey

def sign_request(private_key, timestamp, method, path):
    # Strip query parameters from path before signing
    path_without_query = path.split('?')[0]

    # Create the message to sign
    message = f"{timestamp}{method}{path_without_query}".encode('utf-8')

    if isinstance(private_key, Ed25519PrivateKey):
        # Ed25519 signs the message itself
        signature = private_key.sign(message)
    else:
        # RSA signs with RSA-PSS over SHA-256
        signature = private_key.sign(
            message,
            padding.PSS(
                mgf=padding.MGF1(hashes.SHA256()),
                salt_length=padding.PSS.DIGEST_LENGTH
            ),
            hashes.SHA256()
        )

    # Return base64 encoded
    return base64.b64encode(signature).decode('utf-8')

Step 3: Get Your Balance

Now let’s make your first authenticated request to get your account balance:

import requests
import datetime

# Set up the request
timestamp = str(int(datetime.datetime.now().timestamp() * 1000))
method = "GET"
path = "/trade-api/v2/portfolio/balance"

# Create signature (using function from Step 2)
signature = sign_request(private_key, timestamp, method, path)

# Make the request
headers = {
    'KALSHI-ACCESS-KEY': 'your-api-key-id',
    'KALSHI-ACCESS-SIGNATURE': signature,
    'KALSHI-ACCESS-TIMESTAMP': timestamp
}

response = requests.get('https://external-api.demo.kalshi.co' + path, headers=headers)
balance = response.json()

print(f"Your balance: ${balance['balance'] / 100:.2f}")

Complete Working Example

Here’s the minimal code to get your balance:

import requests
import datetime
import base64
from urllib.parse import urlparse
from cryptography.hazmat.primitives import serialization, hashes
from cryptography.hazmat.backends import default_backend
from cryptography.hazmat.primitives.asymmetric import padding
from cryptography.hazmat.primitives.asymmetric.ed25519 import Ed25519PrivateKey

# Configuration
API_KEY_ID = 'your-api-key-id-here'
PRIVATE_KEY_PATH = 'path/to/your/kalshi-key.key'
BASE_URL = 'https://external-api.demo.kalshi.co/trade-api/v2'  # or 'https://external-api.kalshi.com/trade-api/v2' for production

def load_private_key(key_path):
    with open(key_path, "rb") as f:
        return serialization.load_pem_private_key(f.read(), password=None, backend=default_backend())

def create_signature(private_key, timestamp, method, path):
    """Create the request signature with the key's algorithm."""
    # Strip query parameters before signing
    path_without_query = path.split('?')[0]
    message = f"{timestamp}{method}{path_without_query}".encode('utf-8')
    if isinstance(private_key, Ed25519PrivateKey):
        signature = private_key.sign(message)
    else:
        signature = private_key.sign(
            message,
            padding.PSS(mgf=padding.MGF1(hashes.SHA256()), salt_length=padding.PSS.DIGEST_LENGTH),
            hashes.SHA256()
        )
    return base64.b64encode(signature).decode('utf-8')

def get(private_key, api_key_id, path, base_url=BASE_URL):
    """Make an authenticated GET request to the Kalshi API."""
    timestamp = str(int(datetime.datetime.now().timestamp() * 1000))
    # Signing requires the full URL path from root (e.g. /trade-api/v2/portfolio/balance)
    sign_path = urlparse(base_url + path).path
    signature = create_signature(private_key, timestamp, "GET", sign_path)

    headers = {
        'KALSHI-ACCESS-KEY': api_key_id,
        'KALSHI-ACCESS-SIGNATURE': signature,
        'KALSHI-ACCESS-TIMESTAMP': timestamp
    }

    return requests.get(base_url + path, headers=headers)

# Load private key
private_key = load_private_key(PRIVATE_KEY_PATH)

# Get balance
response = get(private_key, API_KEY_ID, "/portfolio/balance")
print(f"Your balance: ${response.json()['balance'] / 100:.2f}")

Common Issues

Problem	Solution
401 Unauthorized	Check the API Key ID and private key path, and sign with the algorithm of the parsed key (the PEM header alone does not tell you which)
Signature error	Ensure timestamp is in milliseconds (not seconds)
Path not found	If your `BASE_URL` already ends with `/trade-api/v2`, pass only the endpoint path to the helper (e.g. `/portfolio/balance`, not `/trade-api/v2/portfolio/balance`) so the request URL is not double-prefixed
Signature error with query params	Sign the request path without query parameters. The examples do this with `path.split('?')[0]` after building the full URL path

Next Steps

Now you can make authenticated requests! Try these endpoints (relative to BASE_URL):

/portfolio/positions - Get your positions
/portfolio/orders - View your orders
/markets - Browse available markets

For more details, see the Complete Order Lifecycle guide or explore the API Reference.

​Step 1: Get Your API Keys

​Step 2: Set Up Your Request

​How to Create the Signature

​Step 3: Get Your Balance

​Complete Working Example

​Common Issues

​Next Steps

Step 1: Get Your API Keys

Step 2: Set Up Your Request

How to Create the Signature

Step 3: Get Your Balance

Complete Working Example

Common Issues

Next Steps