Salesforce REST API

salesforce.com · Company

Company OAuth2 Free Tier Technology Financial Services Retail & E-Commerce CRM Enterprise Sales

REST API for Salesforce CRM — the world's #1 CRM platform. Access and manipulate standard and custom objects including Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities, Cases, and Leads. Free Developer Edition available. Used by 150,000+ companies worldwide.

Authentication

OAuth2 OAuth2 with multiple flows supported. Username-Password flow for server integrations. Connected App required — create in Setup → App Manager. Free Developer Edition at developer.salesforce.com.

Sample Requests

GET Query records with SOQL

Execute a SOQL query against any Salesforce object. SOQL is Salesforce's SQL-like query language.

https://{instance}.salesforce.com/services/data/v59.0/query?q=SELECT Id, Name, Email FROM Contact WHERE AccountId != null LIMIT 10

Hover any highlighted part to learn what it does

Headers — extra info sent with the request

Authorization

Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN

curl -X GET "https://{instance}.salesforce.com/services/data/v59.0/query?q=SELECT%20Id%2C%20Name%2C%20Email%20FROM%20Contact%20WHERE%20AccountId%20!%3D%20null%20LIMIT%2010" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN"

import requests
params = {
    "q": "SELECT Id, Name, Email FROM Contact WHERE AccountId != null LIMIT 10"
}
headers = {
    "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN"
}
response = requests.get(
    "https://{instance}.salesforce.com/services/data/v59.0/query",
    params=params,
    headers=headers,
)
print(response.json())

const url = new URL('https://{instance}.salesforce.com/services/data/v59.0/query');
url.searchParams.set('q', 'SELECT Id, Name, Email FROM Contact WHERE AccountId != null LIMIT 10');

const response = await fetch(url, {
  headers: {
    'Authorization': 'Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN'
  },
}); 
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"net/http"
	"net/url"
)

func main() {
	baseURL, _ := url.Parse("https://{instance}.salesforce.com/services/data/v59.0/query")
	q := baseURL.Query()
	q.Set("q", "SELECT Id, Name, Email FROM Contact WHERE AccountId != null LIMIT 10")
	baseURL.RawQuery = q.Encode()
	targetURL := baseURL.String()
	req, _ := http.NewRequest("GET", targetURL, nil)
	req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN")

	client := &http.Client{}
	resp, _ := client.Do(req)
	defer resp.Body.Close()
	body, _ := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
	fmt.Println(string(body))
}

require "net/http"
require "json"

uri = URI("https://{instance}.salesforce.com/services/data/v59.0/query")
uri.query = URI.encode_www_form({
  "q" => "SELECT Id, Name, Email FROM Contact WHERE AccountId != null LIMIT 10"
})

http = Net::HTTP.new(uri.host, uri.port)
http.use_ssl = uri.scheme == "https"

req = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri)
req["Authorization"] = "Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN"

res = http.request(req)
puts JSON.parse(res.body)

<?php
$url = "https://{instance}.salesforce.com/services/data/v59.0/query?" . http_build_query([
    "q" => "SELECT Id, Name, Email FROM Contact WHERE AccountId != null LIMIT 10"
]);
$opts = ["http" => [
    "method" => "GET",
    "header" => implode("\r\n", [
        "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN"
    ]),
]];
$ctx = stream_context_create($opts);
$res = file_get_contents($url, false, $ctx);
print_r(json_decode($res, true));

POST Create an account

Creates a new Account record in Salesforce.

https://{instance}.salesforce.com/services/data/v59.0/sobjects/Account

Hover any highlighted part to learn what it does

Headers — extra info sent with the request

Content-Type	application/json
Authorization	Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN

Request Body — data you're sending

{
  "Name": "Acme Corporation",
  "Industry": "Technology",
  "BillingState": "CA"
}

curl -X POST "https://{instance}.salesforce.com/services/data/v59.0/sobjects/Account" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"Name":"Acme Corporation","Industry":"Technology","BillingState":"CA"}'

import requests
headers = {
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
    "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN"
}
data = {
    "Name": "Acme Corporation",
    "Industry": "Technology",
    "BillingState": "CA"
}
response = requests.post(
    "https://{instance}.salesforce.com/services/data/v59.0/sobjects/Account",
    headers=headers,
    json=data,
)
print(response.json())

const url = 'https://{instance}.salesforce.com/services/data/v59.0/sobjects/Account';

const response = await fetch(url, {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    'Authorization': 'Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN'
  },
  headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
  body: JSON.stringify({
  "Name": "Acme Corporation",
  "Industry": "Technology",
  "BillingState": "CA"
}),
}); 
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"net/http"
	"bytes"
	"encoding/json"
)

func main() {
	targetURL := "https://{instance}.salesforce.com/services/data/v59.0/sobjects/Account"
	jsonData, _ := json.Marshal({"Name":"Acme Corporation","Industry":"Technology","BillingState":"CA"})
	req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", targetURL, bytes.NewBuffer(jsonData))
	req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
	req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN")
	req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")

	client := &http.Client{}
	resp, _ := client.Do(req)
	defer resp.Body.Close()
	body, _ := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
	fmt.Println(string(body))
}

require "net/http"
require "json"

uri = URI("https://{instance}.salesforce.com/services/data/v59.0/sobjects/Account")

http = Net::HTTP.new(uri.host, uri.port)
http.use_ssl = uri.scheme == "https"

req = Net::HTTP::Post.new(uri)
req["Content-Type"] = "application/json"
req["Authorization"] = "Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN"
req["Content-Type"] = "application/json"
req.body = "{\"Name\":\"Acme Corporation\",\"Industry\":\"Technology\",\"BillingState\":\"CA\"}"

res = http.request(req)
puts JSON.parse(res.body)

<?php
$url = "https://{instance}.salesforce.com/services/data/v59.0/sobjects/Account";
$opts = ["http" => [
    "method" => "POST",
    "header" => implode("\r\n", [
        "Content-Type: application/json",
        "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN",
        "Content-Type: application/json"
    ]),
    "content" => json_encode({"Name":"Acme Corporation","Industry":"Technology","BillingState":"CA"}),
]];
$ctx = stream_context_create($opts);
$res = file_get_contents($url, false, $ctx);
print_r(json_decode($res, true));

Postman Setup Guide

Get Postman ↗

Get a FREE Developer Edition at https://developer.salesforce.com/signup
Create a Connected App: Setup → App Manager → New Connected App
Enable OAuth and add callback URL (https://localhost for testing)
For server-to-server: use Username-Password flow with client_id, client_secret, username, password+securityToken
Token URL: https://login.salesforce.com/services/oauth2/token
Your instance URL is in the response: e.g. https://na1.salesforce.com
Use SOQL (SELECT ... FROM ... WHERE ...) for all queries — standard SQL syntax

What can you build with Salesforce REST API?

Salesforce REST API is a Company API. Developers commonly use company APIs for:

enriching CRM records with company firmographics
building lead-generation and prospecting tools
verifying business identity and registration details
monitoring competitors and market intelligence
powering B2B data enrichment pipelines

OAuth 2.0. OAuth lets your app act on behalf of a user. You redirect them to authorise access, receive a token, then use that token in requests. Best for accessing user-owned data. Salesforce REST API is free to use up to a usage limit, making it a low-risk choice to experiment with.

New to APIs? Read our beginner's guide · Learn about API keys · What is REST?

Open documentation ↗