Amazon Gift Card API vs a Multi-Brand Gift Card API: Which Should You Use?
If you’re looking up the Amazon gift card API, the goal is usually simple. Someone finishes a survey, hits a sales target or refers a friend, and a $25 Amazon card should land in their inbox right away, without anyone on your team buying codes one checkout at a time. Amazon does have an API for exactly this. It’s called the Amazon Incentives API, and it works, but it comes with a signed contract, a prefunded balance and request signing borrowed from AWS.
The other route is a multi-brand gift card API, where one integration gives you thousands of brands, prepaid cards and mobile top-ups across many countries. We build one of these at Phaze, so we’re not neutral here. We’ve still tried to keep this fair, because for some teams going direct to Amazon really is the better call. Below we walk through how Amazon’s API actually works, what getting access involves and how to decide between the two.
What Is the Amazon Gift Card API?
The Amazon gift card API is the Amazon Incentives API, the system Amazon says powers Amazon Incentives, Amazon Cash and in-store gift card sales. Its docs and endpoints still use the older internal name AGCOD. Approved partners call it to create Amazon gift card claim codes on demand, then deliver those codes to recipients themselves.
The API is small. These are the calls most rewards programs use:
| Operation | What it does |
|---|---|
| CreateGiftCard | Deducts the amount from your prefunded balance and returns a live claim code |
| CancelGiftCard | Cancels a code within 15 minutes of creation, as long as nobody has claimed it |
| GetGiftCard | Retrieves a code you already created, using your original request ID |
| GetAvailableFunds | Returns your account balance |
| ActivateGiftCard | Activates a physical Amazon gift card on demand, for in-store programs |
A few details matter once you start building. Each CreateGiftCard call makes one code, since Amazon’s developer docs say bulk creation isn’t supported, and you’re throttled at 10 calls a second. Requests are idempotent on the creation request ID, so a retry won’t double-issue. You also can’t keep the codes: Amazon stores every claim code, and partners have to discard them once they’re delivered by email, SMS, in-app or print.
Card values and expiry change by country. A US card runs from $5 to $2,000 and a UK card from £5 to £5,000, according to Amazon’s digital gift card limits. Cards issued in the US, Canada and Australia don’t expire, most other marketplaces set 10 years, and Mexico sets 5.
How to Get Access to the Amazon Gift Card API
You need a signed agreement with Amazon before you can make a single call. Amazon’s onboarding guide says only partners with a contract may use the API, and the steps look like this:
- Apply. Fill in the Amazon Incentives contact form and wait for an account manager to get in touch.
- Get a Partner ID. It comes from the account team for the marketplace you’ll issue in, and it goes into every request you send.
- Set up the portal and sandbox. Email Amazon’s API team with your account details. The docs say they reply within one to two business days.
- Build against the sandbox. Create sandbox keys in the Incentives API portal and sign every request with AWS Signature Version 4. Sandbox and production keys are separate, and mixing them up shows up as signature errors.
- Fund the account. Send money by wire, which takes about two business days, or ACH, which takes about three. If the balance runs short, CreateGiftCard returns an F300 error and no card is issued.
- Go live and keep the keys fresh. Amazon asks you to rotate keys at least every 90 days, and there’s no automatic rotation, so someone has to own that job.
None of this is hard for an experienced engineering team. It’s mostly slow, and the funding step means you’re holding cash with Amazon before your first reward goes out. Amazon doesn’t publish how long the contract step takes, so plan around your account manager rather than a fixed date.
What Is a Multi-Brand Gift Card API?
A multi-brand gift card API is a single integration that sells you gift cards from many brands, usually across many countries, through one catalog, one balance and one set of credentials. The provider holds the brand agreements, so you don’t sign a separate contract with every retailer your recipients might want.
The flow is the same whatever the brand. You pull the catalog for a country, place an order for a brand and amount, and get back either a code to deliver yourself or a reward the provider sends for you. Many providers also sell prepaid Visa and Mastercard cards and mobile top-ups through the same API, which helps when a recipient doesn’t shop at any one retailer or lives somewhere big brands don’t reach. We break down the request and response side in how a gift card API works, and compare providers in our list of the best gift card APIs.
Amazon Gift Card API vs Multi-Brand Gift Card API: Side-by-Side
The biggest difference is reach. Amazon’s API gives you one brand in 20 marketplaces, while a multi-brand API gives you whatever its catalog covers, which can be thousands of brands in well over 100 countries.
| Amazon gift card API | Multi-brand gift card API | |
|---|---|---|
| Brands | Amazon only | Hundreds to thousands (Phaze: 2,500+) |
| Countries | 20 Amazon marketplaces, each card tied to the site it was issued for | Depends on the provider (Phaze: 150+ countries) |
| Reward types | Digital claim codes, plus physical card activation | Gift cards, and often prepaid Visa and Mastercard cards and mobile top-ups |
| Getting access | Signed contract, account manager and a Partner ID | Usually a sandbox or a sales call first, no per-brand contracts |
| Funding | Prefunded balance, topped up by wire (about 2 business days) or ACH (about 3) | Varies by provider, so ask how balances are funded and in which currencies |
| Fees | No program fees, per Amazon | Face value, a platform fee or a margin share, depending on the provider |
| Request signing | AWS Signature Version 4, keys rotated by hand at least every 90 days | Usually an API key plus a signed request (Phaze signs requests with SHA-256) |
| Volume | One code per call, 10 calls a second | Check each provider’s rate limits and bulk options |
| Delivery | You deliver the code, and you can’t store it | You deliver it, or the provider sends it by email or SMS |
| Order updates | Synchronous response, with GetGiftCard to re-fetch | Often webhooks (Phaze sends created, completed, failed and refunded events) |
| Recipient choice | None, it’s an Amazon card | You can offer different brands by country or let recipients choose |
Which One Should You Use?
Go direct to Amazon if your recipients all live in its marketplaces and Amazon is the only reward you’ll ever send. If either of those isn’t true, a multi-brand API will usually save you work.
Use the Amazon Gift Card API If
- Your recipients sit almost entirely in the US, Canada, the UK, the EU or another of Amazon’s 20 marketplaces.
- You’re sure you’ll only ever offer Amazon cards, now and a year from now.
- Your volume is high enough that a contract, an account manager and a dedicated integration are worth it.
- Your team is comfortable with AWS request signing and owning manual key rotation.
- You can keep a prefunded balance with Amazon and wait two or three business days for top-ups.
Use a Multi-Brand Gift Card API If
- You pay people in countries outside Amazon’s list. India and Brazil, for example, aren’t in the API’s marketplace list.
- Your recipients don’t all want the same thing, so a coffee card for one and a grocery card for another performs better.
- You want prepaid cards or mobile top-ups next to gift cards, without a second integration.
- You’d rather start in a sandbox this week than wait on a contract.
- You want order status pushed to your backend through webhooks instead of polling.
Or Use Both
Some larger programs run the two side by side. They send Amazon cards direct in their biggest market, where volume makes the contract worth it, and route every other country through a multi-brand API. It’s more to maintain, so it only makes sense once a single market is doing serious volume.
Can You Send Amazon Gift Cards Through a Multi-Brand API?
Often, yes, but not everywhere. Multi-brand providers buy Amazon cards through their own agreements, so whether Amazon shows up in a catalog depends on the country, the currency, the card value and sometimes your use case. You won’t get Amazon API credentials either way. You’re ordering a product from the provider’s catalog, not plugging into Amazon.
So before you count on it, check with the provider. Is Amazon in the live catalog for every country you pay in, at the values you send? Are there use cases it can’t cover, since Amazon’s corporate gift card terms still apply? Which Amazon site does each card work on, so a recipient in Germany doesn’t end up with a card meant for Amazon.com?
If someone lives outside Amazon’s marketplaces, an Amazon card won’t help them however you buy it. A prepaid Visa or Mastercard, a local retailer or a mobile top-up is the reward they’ll actually use.
Send Rewards in 150+ Countries With One Phaze API
Phaze is a multi-brand payouts API. One integration covers 2,500+ gift card brands, prepaid Visa and Mastercard cards and mobile top-ups from 500+ carriers across 150+ countries, delivered by email, SMS or in-app. It’s free to integrate, there’s a sandbox to build against, and webhooks tell your backend the moment an order is created, completed, failed or refunded. Talk to our team and we’ll check catalog coverage for the countries you pay in.
Amazon Gift Card API FAQ
Does Amazon have an official gift card API?
Yes. It’s the Amazon Incentives API, and only businesses with a signed agreement with Amazon can use it.
Does the Amazon gift card API cost anything?
Amazon says there are no program fees. You pay the card value from a prefunded balance, plus the time it takes to build and maintain the integration.
Can I create Amazon gift cards in bulk through the API?
Not in one call. Each CreateGiftCard request makes one code, at up to 10 requests a second, so a bulk order runs as a loop.
Can an Amazon.com gift card be used on Amazon.co.uk?
Generally no. Amazon gift cards work on the marketplace they were issued for, so a global program needs the right card for each country.
Is there a sandbox for the Amazon gift card API?
Yes. Amazon gives approved partners a sandbox with its own keys and endpoints, so you can test every call before going live.