# Creating a Flute Account

# Creating a Flute Account
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Before using Flute payment capabilities or the Flute API suite, you must create a Flute sandbox account.
All development and testing occurs first in a sandbox account.
The sandbox account is a fully isolated account that mirrors production behavior.
All transactions, sales, and Flute API endpoints may be made in the sandbox.
However, it does not process real transactions.
It is used to validate your integration, applications, and workflows before going live.
The account is free, does not require approval, and is self managed.
Use the following procedure to create the Flute sandbox account and a merchant API key.
The merchant API key is required to generate an API token, used to make each call.<br>
See <a href="/docs/getting-started/api-authentication#creating-a-flute-sandbox-account" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Creating a Flute Account</a>

Version: V2 Beta
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