# API Authentication

> Formspree Docs · The Forms API · Updated March 8, 2024

#### Available on: Professional, Business plans

Once you have your [API keys](/articles/the-forms-api/api-keys/) you can use them to authenticate API requests. Formspree recognizes two authentication schemes, Basic and Bearer.

## Basic Authentication

You can use basic auth by filling in the `Authorization` header as follows:

```
Authorization: Basic base64_encoded(username:password)
```

Formspree ignores the username, but expects the password to be either the master key or public API key for your form.

Here's an example of using CURL with basic auth:

```bash
curl -u :API_KEY https://some.domain/
```

## Bearer Token Authentication

You can put your key directly into the header by using the bearer authentication type. Just fill in the `Authorization` header as follows:

```
Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY
```

Here's a CURL example:

```bash
curl http://some.domain/ -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"
```