---
title: Get started with the Optimizely Web Experimentation REST API
slug: web-experimentation/docs/rest-api-getting-started
docTags: 
createdAt: 2026-07-23T11:40:26.754Z
---

This tutorial shows you how to use the [Optimizely Web Experimentation API](docId\:ZAZ5ZXCZZoX11jsGkDjEZ). It demonstrates how to programmatically.

- Configure a developer account and obtain an access token.
- Use that token to invoke your first REST request.

## Generate a token

To use the REST API, you must obtain a token.

1. Access your developer account at [app.optimizely.com](https://app.optimizely.com/v2/profile/api). Once logged in, the dashboard displays.
2. Click **Profile**.
3. Select the **API Access** tab.
4. Click **Generate New Token**.
5. Enter a name for the new token on the popup and click **Create**. The website redirects to the dashboard.
6. Copy the token value from the **Token** column on the dashboard.

## Make your first API call

In this section, you invoke the [List Projects](docId:-0NowoYWx9MUptmLXwmNc) endpoint to obtain a list of projects.

To use the Optimizely Web Experimentation REST API, you must include a request header called *Authorization*, set it to specify a `Bearer` token, and include the access token generated previously.

In the following example, replace `PERSONAL_TOKEN` with the access token that you generated previously and then execute the command using a terminal window:

```bash
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer PERSONAL_TOKEN" "https://api.optimizely.com/v2/projects"
```

The response contains a collection listing all of your projects.

```json
[
  {
    "account_id": 5935064,
    "confidence_threshold": 0.9,
    "created": "2022-01-11T17:19:41.401142Z",
    "description": "",
    "id": 21014920239,
    "is_classic": false,
    "is_flags_enabled": false,
    "last_modified": "2024-01-23T20:17:13.304965Z",
    "name": "Combined Dev Docs",
    "platform": "web",
    "sdks": [],
    "status": "active",
    "web_snippet": {
      "code_revision": 6281,
      "enable_force_variation": false,
      "exclude_disabled_experiments": false,
      "exclude_names": true,
      "include_jquery": false,
      "ip_anonymization": false,
      "js_file_size": 89333,
      "library": "none"
    }
  },
  {
    "account_id": 5935064,
    "confidence_threshold": 0.9,
    "created": "2022-02-10T01:09:22.479578Z",
    "description": "Demo Sandbox Account for web experiments ",
    "id": 21187142045,
    "is_classic": false,
    "is_flags_enabled": false,
    "last_modified": "2024-02-22T20:45:11.048997Z",
    "name": "Attic and Button",
    "platform": "web",
    "sdks": [],
    "status": "active",
    "web_snippet": {
      "code_revision": 75,
      "enable_force_variation": true,
      "exclude_disabled_experiments": false,
      "exclude_names": false,
      "include_jquery": false,
      "ip_anonymization": false,
      "js_file_size": 84966,
      "library": "none"
    }
  },
  {
    "account_id": 5935064,
    "confidence_threshold": 0.9,
    "created": "2022-06-02T13:39:49.328271Z",
    "description": "",
    "id": 21562231775,
    "is_classic": false,
    "is_flags_enabled": false,
    "last_modified": "2024-02-21T12:06:13.433610Z",
    "name": "[Craig] Playground",
    "platform": "web",
    "sdks": [],
    "status": "active",
    "web_snippet": {
      "code_revision": 47,
      "enable_force_variation": false,
      "exclude_disabled_experiments": false,
      "exclude_names": true,
      "include_jquery": false,
      "ip_anonymization": false,
      "js_file_size": 84945,
      "library": "none"
    }
  },
  {
    "account_id": 5935064,
    "confidence_threshold": 0.9,
    "created": "2022-07-12T20:40:05.099614Z",
    "description": "",
    "id": 21770491416,
    "is_classic": false,
    "is_flags_enabled": true,
    "last_modified": "2023-10-17T21:30:09.195688Z",
    "name": "Web Demo",
    "platform": "custom",
    "sdks": [],
    "status": "active"
  },
  {
    "account_id": 5935064,
    "confidence_threshold": 0.9,
    "created": "2024-01-12T22:44:32.576778Z",
    "description": "Personalization campaign for the dev doc site.",
    "id": 27211030214,
    "is_classic": false,
    "is_flags_enabled": false,
    "last_modified": "2024-01-17T06:31:19.988677Z",
    "name": "Personalization",
    "platform": "web",
    "sdks": [],
    "status": "active",
    "web_snippet": {
      "code_revision": 2,
      "enable_force_variation": false,
      "exclude_disabled_experiments": false,
      "exclude_names": true,
      "include_jquery": false,
      "ip_anonymization": false,
      "js_file_size": 85095,
      "library": "none"
    }
  },
  {
    "account_id": 5935064,
    "confidence_threshold": 0.9,
    "created": "2024-01-12T22:41:57.672289Z",
    "description": "",
    "id": 27216770080,
    "is_classic": false,
    "is_flags_enabled": false,
    "last_modified": "2024-01-17T06:31:20.085922Z",
    "name": "Edge project",
    "platform": "web",
    "sdks": [],
    "status": "active",
    "web_snippet": {
      "code_revision": 2,
      "enable_force_variation": false,
      "exclude_disabled_experiments": false,
      "exclude_names": true,
      "include_jquery": false,
      "ip_anonymization": false,
      "js_file_size": 85004,
      "library": "none"
    }
  }
]
```

## Start building

After performing the previous steps, you can start building an application with Optimizely Web Experimentation. See [Optimizely API](docId\:ZAZ5ZXCZZoX11jsGkDjEZ) for information about all of our supported endpoints.

You can download our [Postman collection](https://api.optimizely.com/collections/web.json) to experiment with the APIs using [Postman](https://www.postman.com/).

Questions about using the REST API? [Submit a ticket to the Optimizely Support team](https://support.optimizely.com/hc/en-us/articles/4410284179469).