> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.yabetoopay.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Create a Payment Intent

> Create a payment intent to process a payment

## What is a Payment Intent?

A payment intent is a resource that represents your wish to receive payment for a specific amount. When you create a payment intent, you don't immediately capture the amount; it's a preparatory step.

A payment intent tracks a customer's payment process. It records details such as amount, currency and payment method.

## Prepare your request

The endpoint to use is `POST https://pay.sandbox.yabetoopay.com/v1/payment-intents` for sandbox environment and `POST https://pay.api.yabetoopay.com/v1/payment-intents` for production environment.

<Note>
  Secret key security: The secret key (secret\_key) must be kept confidential and
  must never be exposed in the frontend or client code. It must only be used on
  the server side.
</Note>

1. Use the secret key provided `secret_key` to authenticate yourself to the API. For security reasons, this key must only be used on the server side.
2. The request body should contain the following parameters:

```json theme={null}
{
  "amount": 2000,
  "currency": "xaf",
  "description": "Payment for product",
  "metadata": { "orderId": "1234" }
}
```

### Parameters

* `amount`: The amount to be paid
* `currency`: The currency of the payment
* `description`: A description of the payment (optional)
* `metadata`: Additional metadata (optional)

## Create a Payment Intent

You can create a payment intent by using the following code, this example is in JavaScript (Node.js) but you can use any language you want just by following the same logic.

```javascript theme={null}
const response = await fetch(
  "https://pay.sandbox.yabetoopay.com/v1/payment-intents",
  {
    method: "POST",
    headers: {
      "Content-Type": "application/json",
      Authorization: "Bearer YOUR_SECRET_KEY",
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      amount: 2000,
      currency: "xaf",
    }),
  }
);

const data = await response.json();
```

## Response

### 200 OK

The response body will contain the following parameters:

* `amount`: The amount to be paid
* `currency`: The currency of the payment
* `description`: The description of the payment
* `metadata`: The metadata associated with the payment
* `accountId`: The merchant account ID
* `liveMode`: Indicates whether the payment is in production (`true`) or sandbox (`false`) mode
* `label`: The label of the payment intent
* `id`: The unique ID of the payment intent
* `createdAt`: The creation date of the payment intent
* `updatedAt`: The last update date of the payment intent
* `clientSecret`: The client secret of the payment intent

```json theme={null}
{
  "amount": 10000,
  "currency": "xaf",
  "description": "Payment for product",
  "metadata": {
    "orderId": "orderId-22"
  },
  "accountId": "acct_xsd",
  "liveMode": false,
  "label": "payment_intent",
  "id": "pi_OYgGCdY1VaWvszwZcAY7VXvuXI70Ao9rsuMl",
  "createdAt": "2026-02-16T15:33:55.048+00:00",
  "updatedAt": "2026-02-16T15:33:55.062+00:00",
  "clientSecret": "pi_OYgGCdY1VaWvszwZcAY7VXvuXI70Ao9rsuMl_secret_JYtxzKNhuwDCilaH72rEtMGuAlJl29qYAnOe"
}
```

### 422 Bad Request

If the request is invalid, the server will return a 422 status code with an error message.

```json theme={null}
{
  "errors": [
    {
      "rule": "required",
      "field": "currency",
      "message": "required validation failed"
    }
  ]
}
```

### 401 Unauthorized

If the secret key is invalid, the server will return a 401 status code with an error message.

```json theme={null}
{
  "error": "Unauthorized"
}
```