Documentation

The Digitel Africa API is a REST interface to South Africa's digital infrastructure platform. Manage business email, DNS, hosting, the cloud app platform, managed PostgreSQL databases, domains, SSL, and VPN from a single, predictable API. Every request uses standard HTTP verbs, returns JSON, and is served over TLS from the base URL below.

All endpoints are relative to the versioned base URL https://api.digitel.africa/v1. Official SDKs are available for PHP, Python, and TypeScript, and every example on this page includes a raw cURL equivalent so you can integrate from any language.

The API authenticates requests with a Bearer API key. Pass your key in the Authorization header on every request: Authorization: Bearer da_live_.... Requests without a valid key return 401 Unauthorized.

Create and rotate keys in the Digitel Africa console under Settings -> API keys. Live keys are prefixed da_live_ and test keys da_test_; test keys never touch production infrastructure or send real email.

curl https://api.digitel.africa/v1/account \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer da_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

Install the SDK for your language with its native package manager. Each SDK wraps authentication, retries, and typed responses so you can call the API without hand-building requests. If you are using cURL or another language, no installation is needed - just call the REST endpoints directly.

composer require digitel/sdk

Send a transactional email through your Digitel Africa | Mail domain by creating a message. The sending domain must be verified in the console before live delivery. The endpoint returns immediately with a message id you can use to track delivery.

curl https://api.digitel.africa/v1/email/messages \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer da_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "from": "[email protected]",
    "to": ["[email protected]"],
    "subject": "Welcome to Yourco",
    "html": "<h1>Welcome aboard</h1>"
  }'

{
  "id": "msg_01HZY8QK3P4RN2",
  "object": "email.message",
  "status": "queued",
  "from": "[email protected]",
  "to": ["[email protected]"],
  "subject": "Welcome to Yourco",
  "created_at": "2026-08-24T09:15:42Z"
}

Add a record to a DNS zone you manage. Replace {zone} in the path with the zone name or id, for example yourco.co.za. Changes propagate across the Digitel Africa anycast network within seconds.

curl https://api.digitel.africa/v1/dns/zones/yourco.co.za/records \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer da_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "type": "A",
    "name": "www",
    "content": "196.10.52.14",
    "ttl": 3600
  }'

The API uses conventional HTTP status codes to signal success or failure. Codes in the 2xx range indicate success, 4xx codes indicate a problem with your request, and 5xx codes indicate an error on Digitel Africa's side. Every error response includes a machine-readable code and a human-readable message.

{
  "error": {
    "type": "validation_error",
    "code": "invalid_parameter",
    "message": "The 'to' field must contain at least one recipient.",
    "param": "to",
    "request_id": "req_01HZY9F2M8KQ7T"
  }
}

Requests are rate limited per API key. The current limit is 600 requests per minute for most endpoints; email sending is metered separately by your plan. Each response returns X-RateLimit-Limit, X-RateLimit-Remaining, and X-RateLimit-Reset headers so you can back off before hitting the ceiling.