Set Up ClickSend and Get Your API Credentials

A text message doesn’t come out of Airtable. Something has to physically deliver it to a customer’s phone. A messaging provider sits in the middle: your automation makes a request, the provider sends the message, you pay for what you send.

1. Job completeSomething real happened in the business
2. Your automation runsAirtable, Make, Zapier or a script
3. ClickSend receives the requestIt checks who you are
4. Customer receives a textA short message with one link
5. Customer decidesThey open the link or ignore it

You don’t have to use ClickSend.

It’s a common example because it’s easy to set up and works with most automation tools. The same setup applies to any messaging provider: create an account, find your credentials, put them into your automation, test one message. Only the menus change.

A messaging account is easy to create and easy to forget about. A quick check first saves you from paying for something you didn’t need.

• Have you already proven that customers respond to an email request?
• Do you actually have mobile numbers for the customers you want to contact?
• Are you happy paying a small amount for every message you send?
• Do you know what the message says before you connect anything?

Sign-up takes a few minutes. Use details that belong to the business, not to one person’s personal inbox.

1. 01

   Open the ClickSend sign-up page

   dashboard.clicksend.com/signup

2. 02

   Enter your name, business details, business email and a password

3. 03

   Check your email and verify the address

   The message can take a couple of minutes to arrive

4. 04

   Log in to your new dashboard

5. 05

   Add credit when you’re ready

   New accounts are often given a small trial credit — check what’s currently offered

This is the bit everyone hunts around for. You’re after two values: your username and your API key.

1. 01

   Log in to your ClickSend dashboard

2. 02

   Look in the top-right corner for the key icon or API Credentials

   On some accounts it sits under Profile or Developers

3. 03

   Copy your Username

   It may already be filled in for you

4. 04

   Copy your API Key

   Use the copy button rather than selecting the text by hand

5. 05

   Paste both into your automation or password manager

Every request your automation makes has to prove who it’s from. ClickSend uses your username and API key together, the same way a website uses a username and password.

One quirk worth knowing: many tools label this field Password. In that box you put your API key, not the password you use to log in. It’s the most common reason a first test message fails.

An API key can send messages using your credit and read the account details attached to it. That means it deserves the same care as your banking passwords — and it gets forgotten far more often.

• Store it in a password manager, not a note on your desktop
• Don’t paste it into emails, chats or screenshots
• Don’t commit it to code or a public repository
• Don’t share it with anyone who doesn’t need it
• Keep a note of where it’s being used, so you can update it later
• If it leaks, regenerate the key and update your automation

Provider:     ClickSend
Account email:
Username:      (your ClickSend username)
API key:       kept in the password manager — not written here
Dashboard:     https://dashboard.clicksend.com
Used by:       (Airtable automation / Make / Zapier)
Added:         (date)
Checked:       (date)

Copy this into your password manager and fill it in. It records the boring-but-useful details without keeping the actual key in a text file.

Every tool labels these fields slightly differently. The values behind them are the same.

Before this touches a customer, send a single message to your own mobile. It proves the credentials work, the number format is right and you know what the message looks like on a real phone.

• Add enough credit to send a message
• Send one message to your own mobile number
• Check that it arrives
• Check the sender name the customer would see
• Check how much it cost
• Check whether it arrived as one message or two
• Read it on your phone and decide whether you’d be happy receiving it

Hi [Name], this is a test message from [Business Name]. If you can read this, our review request system is working. Thanks, [Name]

Messaging providers usually work on pay-as-you-go credit rather than a monthly plan. A few things quietly change the cost.

• Long messages split into multiple parts, and each part is charged
• Some countries and networks cost more than others
• A custom Sender ID may need to be registered before you can use it
• Unused credit may not be refundable or transferable
• Marketing texts have strict permission rules in Australia — get consent first and make opting out easy

Work through these one at a time. Almost every first attempt failure is one of the four.

You created the account. It sits behind an email address you control. Your customer records live in your own table. The messaging provider is doing one job — delivering text — and it is a job you could move somewhere else.

If you ever change providers, your workflow doesn’t change. You swap two values in one box and update the name of the tool. That’s the difference between owning a system and renting a black box.