Loading…

Getting Started

Everything you need to start using Arcadia Age API (A3) — the unified age compliance API for web, iOS, and Android.

Why low-friction age assurance?

Laws like California AB 1043 require age assurance, but the old playbook — ID uploads, selfie checks, verification walls — costs you conversions and saddles you with sensitive data. A3 flips that. You send lightweight signals (an app store age bracket, behavioral metrics from our drop-in browser SDK, account age), we return a verdict and a signed, audit-ready token. No IDs, no PII stored, no friction.

The web gap is where this matters most. Browsers have no OS-level age signal — there’s no free Apple or Google API to call. A3’s browser SDK passively collects behavioral and contextual signals to fill that gap, giving your web users the same compliance coverage as native apps. For companies on iOS, Android, and web: one API, one audit trail, all three surfaces.

Overview

Arcadia Age API (A3) is the unified age compliance API for web, iOS, and Android. AB 1043 mandates age assurance, but browsers have no OS signal and native platforms each have their own API. A3 normalizes everything into a single call — no verification walls, no ID friction, no stored PII:

Zero-Retention — no user data is stored, logged, or persisted. Every response includes a cryptographically signed verification_token that you store in your own logs for audit purposes.
Pass-Through — A3 is a processor, not a controller. You provide the signals, we return the verdict. This simplifies enterprise Data Processing Addendums (DPAs).
Sub-Second — responses are computed in-memory and returned immediately (cold starts under 200 ms, warm invocations in milliseconds).
Auto-Scaling — deployed on AWS Lambda with no provisioning required.

Getting Your API Key

Sign up at portal.a3api.io.
A Sandbox API key is provisioned automatically on first login.
Manage your keys, view usage, and upgrade your plan from the developer portal.

Install an SDK

Server-side SDKs handle request construction, typed responses, retries, and error handling out of the box.

npm install @a3api/node

Client-side SDKs passively collect behavioral and contextual signals on the user's device. They make zero network calls — your backend forwards the signals to A3.

Platform	Package	Install
Web	`@a3api/signals`	`npm install @a3api/signals`
iOS	`A3Signals`	Add `https://github.com/a3api/a3api-ios` via Swift Package Manager, or `pod 'A3Signals'`
Android	`io.a3api:signals`	`implementation("io.a3api:signals:0.1.0")` in your `build.gradle.kts`

All three client SDKs produce the same SignalPayload JSON structure — your backend code is identical regardless of platform.

Authentication

All production endpoints require an API key. The SDKs accept it as a constructor argument; for raw HTTP, pass it via the Authorization header:

curl -X POST https://api.a3api.io/v1/assurance/assess-age \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"os_signal": "18-plus", "user_country_code": "US"}'

Try it live in the Playground — no API key required.

US only. The A3 API is currently available in the United States only. Requests with EU/EEA/UK country codes will receive a 403 Forbidden response.

Base URL

Environment	Base URL
Production	`https://api.a3api.io/v1`

Error Format

All errors follow a consistent shape:

{
  "statusCode": 400,
  "message": ["os_signal must be a string"],
  "error": "Bad Request"
}

Status	Meaning
`400 Bad Request`	Request body failed validation (missing or invalid fields).
`401 Unauthorized`	Missing or invalid API key.
`429 Too Many Requests`	Rate limit or monthly quota exceeded.

Plans & Rate Limits

Plan	Requests / Minute	Monthly Quota	Response Fields
Sandbox	600	100	Basic
Pro	60,000	Unlimited	Full
Scale	300,000	Unlimited	Full

When rate-limited, the API returns 429 Too Many Requests. When your monthly quota is exceeded, the API returns 429 until the next billing cycle.

Unlimited quota does not mean unlimited free requests. Pro and Scale plans allow unlimited monthly requests — your API access is never cut off. However, requests beyond your plan's included allotment are billed as overages: $0.005 per request on Pro (beyond 10,000/mo) and $0.003 per request on Scale (beyond 50,000/mo). See Pricing for full details.

Sandbox plan responses omit premium fields. The evidence_tags and confidence_score fields are only included on Pro and Scale plans. Sandbox responses still include the verdict, assessed bracket, and verification token. Upgrade from the Developer Portal to unlock full responses.

Next Steps

Clone and run — the a3-quickstart repo is a complete working example (React + Express) you can run in under a minute.
Backend developers — use the @a3api/node (TypeScript) or a3api (Python) server-side SDK for typed requests, automatic retries, and structured error handling.
Web developers — read the Web Integration Guide for a full walkthrough, or install the @a3api/signals browser SDK to start collecting signals in minutes.
iOS developers — add the A3Signals Swift package via SPM or CocoaPods for native signal collection with SwiftUI support.
Android developers — add the io.a3api:signals Kotlin library via Gradle for native signal collection with Jetpack Compose support.
Explore the API — browse the available services in the sidebar, or jump straight to the interactive Playground to send live requests.
Testing & CI/CD — use the @a3api/mock-server package to run automated tests without burning sandbox quota.
Compliance — read the AB 1043 guide for integration best practices.