Plaid logo
Docs
ALL DOCS

Sandbox

  • Overview
  • Sandbox institutions
  • Test credentials
  • Customize test data
Plaid logo
Docs
Close search modal
Ask Bill!
Ask Bill!
Hi! I'm Bill! You can ask me all about the Plaid API. Try asking questions like:
  • What's the difference between an Item and an access token?
  • What is Remember Me?
  • How do I set up a webhook for IDV?
Note: Bill isn't perfect. He's just a robot platypus that reads our docs for fun. You should treat his answers with the same healthy skepticism you might treat any other answer on the internet. This chat may be logged for quality and training purposes. Please don't send Bill any PII -- he's scared of intimacy. All chats with Bill are subject to Plaid's Privacy Policy.
Plaid.com
Log in
Get API Keys
Open nav

Sandbox test credentials

Simulate different flows using Sandbox credentials

When using special Sandbox test credentials described on this page (other than user_good / pass_good), use the /sandbox/public_token/create flow or a non-OAuth test institution, such as First Platypus Bank (ins_109508). Special test credentials may be ignored when using the Sandbox Link OAuth flow.

Sandbox simple test credentials

Use the username user_good and password pass_good.

These provide basic account access.

Transactions testing credentials

Use the username user_transactions_dynamic and any password.

These credentials have realistic transaction history and update transactions and fire webhooks when /transactions/refresh is called. See transactions docs for details.

Auth micro-deposit testing credentials

Use the username user_good and the password microdeposits_good.

For more details, see Institution details for Auth testing.

Credit and Income testing credentials

Plaid provides a variety of pre-populated test users designed for use for Bank Income and other underwriting-related products.

UsernamePasswordDescription
user_bank_income{}User with wide variety of income streams of different types
user_credit_bonusAnyHas two salary streams: one with bonuses included in the paycheck, one with bonuses as separate transactions
user_credit_joint_accountAnyHas two salary streams and two identities on the account
user_credit_profile_poorAnyNet loss cash flow over time, no consistent source of income
user_credit_profile_goodAnyNeutral cash flow over time, multiple gig economy income streams
user_credit_profile_excellentAnyPositive cash flow over time, high salary-based income with secondary rental income stream
user_prism_1 through user_prism_10AnyFor testing Partner Insights reports, these users return a variety of consistent partner insights values

Plaid also provides a GitHub repo designed specifically for testing credit products; look in the income directory for credit-specific users. You can modify these users as you need. For instructions, see Custom users.

For details on testing Bank Income with custom data, see Testing Bank Income.

Monitor and Identity Verification testing users

Monitor and Identity Verification have product-specific Sandbox users that can be used for testing. For more details, see Testing Monitor and Testing Identity Verification.

Sandbox multi-factor credentials

You can trigger any multi-factor authentication (MFA) flow that Plaid supports when creating an Item by using username user_good and modifying the password.

Bank of America and U.S. Bank cannot be used as test institutions when triggering MFA flows with modified passwords. Instead, these banks will always launch on Sandbox with an MFA flow.

Multi-factor device OTP
1username: 'user_good'
2password: 'mfa_device'
3
4# Code for all devices: 1234
5code: 1234
Multi-factor questions
1# n-rounds of m-questions per round, where 0 <= i, j < 9
2username: 'user_good'
3password: 'mfa_questions_<n>_<m>'
4
5# answer_<i>_<j>, for j-th question in i-th round.
6answer: 'answer_<i>_<j>'
Multi-factor selections
1username: 'user_good'
2password: 'mfa_selections'
3
4answer: 'Yes'
1# n-rounds of m-questions with o-answers per question
2# 0 < n, m < 10 and 2 <= o < 10
3username: 'user_good'
4password: 'mfa_selections_<n>_<m>_<o>'
5
6# answer_<n>_<m>_0, for m-th question in n-th round.
7answer: 'answer_1_1_0'

ReCAPTCHA testing credentials

You may trigger a reCAPTCHA in Plaid Link in the Sandbox environment by customizing the test account password. Possible values are good or bad. A value of good will result in successful Item creation and bad will result in a RECAPTCHA_BAD error to simulate a failed reCAPTCHA. Both values require the reCAPTCHA to be manually solved within Plaid Link.

1username: user_good
2password: {"recaptcha":"bad"}

Error testing credentials

You can trigger several ITEM_ERROR or INSTITUTION_ERROR errors that you may encounter when creating an Item by using username user_good and modifying the password.

1error_[ERROR_CODE]

For example, the password error_ITEM_LOCKED allows you to simulate an ITEM_LOCKED error.

Note that error testing credentials are not compatible with institutions that use OAuth. If you are not sure whether an institution uses OAuth flows, see the list of Sandbox institutions to find an institution that is guaranteed not to use OAuth.

The list of errors that can be simulated in this way is below:

1"COUNTRY_NOT_SUPPORTED"
2"INSTITUTION_DOWN"
3"INSTITUTION_NOT_RESPONDING"
4"INSTITUTION_NO_LONGER_SUPPORTED"
5"INSUFFICIENT_CREDENTIALS"
6"INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR"
7"INVALID_CREDENTIALS"
8"INVALID_MFA"
9"INVALID_SEND_METHOD"
10"ITEM_LOCKED"
11"ITEM_NOT_SUPPORTED"
12"MFA_NOT_SUPPORTED"
13"NO_ACCOUNTS"
14"PAYMENT_INVALID_RECIPIENT"
15"PRODUCTS_NOT_SUPPORTED"
16"USER_INPUT_TIMEOUT"
17"USER_SETUP_REQUIRED"

You can test several other OAuth-specific Link errors via the drop-down selector on the First Platypus OAuth screen after selecting any OAuth institution. The list of errors that can be simulated in this way is below:

1"INSUFFICIENT_CREDENTIALS"
2"ACCESS_NOT_GRANTED"
3"NO_AUTH_ACCOUNTS"

Link Recovery testing credentials

See Testing Link Recovery.

Was this helpful?
Developer community
GitHub
GitHub
Stack Overflow
Stack Overflow
YouTube
YouTube
Discord
Discord