You'll need to authenticate your requests to access any of the CarsXE API endpoints. In this guide, we'll look at how authentication works. CarsXE offers a very simple way to authenticate with an API key. You can find your API key on the [dashboard](https://api.carsxe.com/dashboard).

## API key

With basic authentication, you use your API key to authenticate your HTTP requests. Here's how to authenticate using cURL:

<CodeGroup>

```bash
curl https://api.carsxe.com/v1/auth/validate \
  -d key=CARSXE_API_KEY \
```

</CodeGroup>

Please don't commit your CarsXE API key to GitHub!