generated: '2026-08-13'
method: searched
source: https://developers.activecampaign.com/page/developer-sandbox-accounts
description: >-
  ActiveCampaign's test environment is a whole separate ACCOUNT, not a test mode inside
  a live one. There is no test/live key pair, no test-mode prefix, no magic test
  identifiers and no time simulation — the platform's sandbox story is "we will give
  you a free, limited, real account if you ask us for one".
model: separate-account
test_live_separation:
  mode_switch: false
  key_prefix_test: null
  key_prefix_live: null
  note: >-
    ActiveCampaign API keys carry no environment marker. A sandbox key and a production
    key are structurally identical, so a client cannot tell from the credential which
    environment it is pointed at — the only discriminator is the account subdomain in
    the base URL. For an agent operating with a user-supplied base URL and key, that is
    a real blast-radius concern: nothing in the request or the response says "this is
    production".
sandbox_account:
  name: Developer Sandbox Account
  purpose: >-
    "Enables developers and integration partners to explore the functionality available
    on the ActiveCampaign platform and test both the technical and business value of
    their integration."
  cost: free
  self_service: false
  provisioning: request form, manually approved
  request_form: https://acresearch.activehosted.com/f/13
  limits:
    contacts: 1000
    email_sends: 100
    users: 5
    custom_objects: true
    sms_credits_for_automations: 0
  expiry:
    duration_years: 2
    renewable: true
    renewal_contact: devrel@activecampaign.com
  note: >-
    "Developer Sandbox Accounts are intended to provide a realistic environment that is
    similar to the environment of ActiveCampaign customers." The 100 email-send cap and
    the zero SMS credits mean the two most consequential side effects on the platform —
    sending email and sending SMS — are exactly the ones you cannot meaningfully
    exercise before going live.
magic_values:
  test_cards: null
  test_bank_accounts: null
  test_phone_numbers: null
  test_emails: null
  published: false
  note: >-
    None published. ActiveCampaign is not a payments provider and documents no reserved
    identifiers that trigger deterministic behaviour. Nothing is invented here.
time_simulation:
  test_clocks: false
  note: >-
    No test clock or time-travel facility. Automations, scheduled campaigns and
    date-based triggers can only be exercised in real time, which makes multi-day
    journey logic effectively untestable before production.
fixtures_and_triggers:
  fixture_tooling: false
  event_triggers: false
  webhook_replay: false
  note: >-
    No fixture generator, no event-trigger CLI, no webhook replay. Webhooks in
    particular are not retried on failure, so there is no supported way to re-deliver a
    missed test event.
  webhook_testing_hint: >-
    ActiveCampaign publishes an example repo for managing webhooks over the REST API
    (github.com/ActiveCampaign/example-rest_hooks); it manages subscriptions, it does
    not simulate deliveries.
trial:
  available: true
  length_days: 14
  credit_card_required: false
  note: >-
    A 14-day product trial exists and is self-service, unlike the sandbox. It is a
    trial of the product, not a developer environment: it expires, it is billed after,
    and it is not the environment ActiveCampaign points integrators at.
  source: https://www.activecampaign.com/pricing
agent_guidance:
  - >-
    Treat every ActiveCampaign credential as production unless a human has confirmed
    otherwise. There is no programmatic way to detect a sandbox.
  - >-
    Destructive and enrolling operations (add_contact_to_automation, create_deal,
    bulk-import-contacts) have no dry-run and no undo. ActiveCampaign's own first-party
    Claude plugin wraps every write in a read -> preview -> confirm -> execute -> verify
    flow for exactly this reason.
x-evidence:
  - {url: 'https://developers.activecampaign.com/page/developer-sandbox-accounts.md', http_status: 200, fetched: '2026-08-13'}
  - {url: 'https://developers.activecampaign.com/page/getting-started.md', http_status: 200, fetched: '2026-08-13'}
  - {url: 'https://developers.activecampaign.com/reference/authentication.md', http_status: 200, fetched: '2026-08-13'}