# Sandbox and going live
URL: https://musicapi.com/docs/get-started/sandbox-and-going-live.md

> Evaluation accounts and their cap of 5 connected users, managed integrations versus your own developer apps, the docs sandbox, and what changes for production.

Product: MusicAPI Core and MusicAPI Managed Transfers. Section: Get started.

Your sign-up choice decides how your account starts. Production needs a short check by us.

## The sign-up choice

The sign-up form asks what you build.

|                           | Integrating                                        | Transferring                                                 |
| ------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Form text                 | "Integrating music streaming services into my app" | "Move listener libraries into my service, matching included" |
| Managed Transfers         | Off                                                | On                                                           |
| Evaluation account        | No                                                 | Yes: at most 5 connected users                               |
| Integrations at the start | None. You add your own developer apps.             | Managed integrations, ready to use                           |
| Transfer destination      | None                                               | Demoify                                                      |

You get a Client ID and a Client Secret in both cases.

## Evaluation accounts

A `transferring` sign-up is an evaluation account. The dashboard shows a **Sandbox** badge.

- At most **5 connected users** in total, across all services. A new sign-in past the cap fails with `403` and the message "Evaluation accounts are limited to 5 connected accounts. Contact us to move to production."
- Each new connected account counts, on both sides of a transfer. Demoify accounts count too.
- The same music account can sign in again: that updates the existing connected user and needs no new slot.
- A deleted connected user still counts. [Disconnecting](https://musicapi.com/docs/connect-users/disconnect-users.md) erases the tokens and personal data, but the record stays.

Everything else works as in production: the API, the rate limit, the webhooks, the metering.

## Managed integrations or your own developer apps

An integration is your account's setup of one music service: its OAuth client, its scopes, and whether users can pick it.

- **Managed integrations.** A `transferring` sign-up gets a copy of the integrations that MusicAPI runs. They work at once, and the users see your business name and logo on the sign-in pages. The credentials stay hidden from you and from the API.
- **Your own developer app.** You register an app at the music service and paste its credentials into the integration. Users then grant access to your app, under your name at the service. An `integrating` sign-up starts here.

Each service page under **Set up each service** says what the service asks for. Start with [Spotify](https://musicapi.com/docs/connect-users/configure-spotify.md).

> **Some services need a partner agreement:** Amazon Music library access, Boomplay and Audiomack give API access only to approved partners. Their setup pages say how to ask for it.

## The docs sandbox

You can try the API on this site with no account.

- Signed out, **Try it** on an endpoint page gets a sandbox session for 1 hour. It acts as our `demo` account and allows 30 calls per minute. It runs the catalog calls: search, match and inspect.
- Signed out, **Connect your music account** on an endpoint page opens our hosted sign-in. Pick your service and sign in with your own account. For one hour, **Try it** then runs every library call (playlists, liked songs, albums, artists, the profile and search) on that account, and on no other account. A call that changes the library asks you first, because it changes your real library. **Disconnect** ends the session. Erasing the user, the token refresh and transfers stay closed to the sandbox.
- For every other endpoint, sign in.
- Signed in, **Try it** acts as your own account, with your rate limit, on your connected users. Each call counts like any other call. A docs session lasts 8 hours or until the browser tab closes.
- A docs session never acts as your Client Secret. It cannot delete users, read raw service tokens or create transfer sessions. Revoke a session in the dashboard settings.

## Going live

1. Finish the onboarding steps the dashboard shows.
2. Set up your own developer apps where your users must see your app at the service, and check each service with its **Test** button.
3. Point the Accepted Return URLs at your production hosts.
4. [Contact us](https://schedule.musicapi.com/). We review the account and lift the evaluation cap.
5. Set up [billing](https://musicapi.com/docs/billing/billing-and-usage.md). Production accounts pay per request, with a monthly minimum.

What changes in production: the 5-user cap goes away. Your rate limit stays 300 requests per minute unless we agree a different one.