Airtime and data

Buy airtime or a data bundle for any Orange or Lonestar Cell MTN number, paid from your Ponitor balance. Each request is one purchase for one number, and most settle within seconds.

How it works

A purchase is either airtime or a data bundle. Send amount for airtime. Send productId, productCode or both for a bundle.

	Airtime	Data bundle
You send	amount: the airtime the number receives, in US dollars	productId (a bundle's id) or productCode (its code), from List data bundles
The number receives	That much airtime	The bundle: its data allowance, valid for its number of days
Your account pays (cost)	The amount you sent	The bundle's price
Limits	At least $1, and at most your team's limit per recipient	The bundle's price must be within your team's limit per recipient
type in the response	AIRTIME	DATA

• No added fees. $1.00 of airtime costs $1.00. A bundle costs its listed price.
• Your team's limit per recipient is $50 unless agreed otherwise. It applies to airtime and bundles. Ponitor refuses a purchase over the limit before charging anything. Contact us to raise it.
• Ponitor takes the cost when it accepts the request, and refunds it in full if the purchase fails.
• Ponitor detects the network from the number. Send 231770000000 or 0770000000. carrier is ORANGE or LONESTAR (Lonestar Cell MTN).
• Each request buys for one number. To buy for a contact group, use Airtime › Batches › New Bulk Top-up in the app.

See Airtime prices.

Data bundles

GET /products returns the bundles on sale. Each bundle has:

• an id, such as prod_p4nzx9xp335h;
• a readable code, such as mtn-data-15gb-30d;
• the carrier it's for, a name and a price;
• its allowance in data, such as 15GB, and how long it lasts in validity, such as 30 days.

You can buy or look up a bundle by id or code. Store the id, because it never changes. An id starts with prod_. A code never contains an underscore.

• We add and withdraw bundles from time to time. Read the list from the API instead of hard-coding it. Treat a missing bundle as unavailable.
• A bundle works on one network only. You can't buy an Orange bundle for a Lonestar Cell MTN number.
• A purchase's product shows the bundle as it was when bought, even if the bundle later changes or is withdrawn.

Sandbox and live

	Sandbox	Live
Base URL	https://sandbox-api.ponitor.com/airtime/v1	https://api.ponitor.com/airtime/v1
Purchases	Simulated, answered at once	Sent to the network
Paid from	Your test balance	Your account balance
Recipient ending 0001	Fails	Real number
Recipient ending 0002	Stays PENDING	Real number

The endpoints

Endpoint	What it does
GET /products	Lists the data bundles on sale.
GET /products/{idOrCode}	Gets one bundle, by id or code.
POST /purchases	Buys airtime or a bundle for one number.
GET /purchases/{id}	Gets a purchase and its status.

Guides

• Buying airtime and bundles: the steps, what happens to a purchase, and each error.
• Retries and externalId: retry safely after a timeout.