# Authentication

**Securely authenticate API requests using Basic Auth or OAuth 2.0**

The Axepta Online API supports two authentication methods to ensure secure access to payment processing and management endpoints. Choose the approach that aligns with your integration needs:

**Basic Authentication**

Use your Merchant ID as the username and API Key as the password. Combine them in the format `MerchantID:APIKey`, encode the string using Base64, and include it in the Authorization header with the `Basic` prefix for direct access to endpoints.

**OAuth 2.0**

Generate a short-lived JSON Web token (JWT) by authenticating with your API key via the `authorization/oauth/token` endpoint.

## Request OAuth Token

 - [POST /authorization/oauth/token](https://axeptabnpparibas-docs.redocly.app/authentication/authorizationservice.md)