# Quick Start

## Create an API Key

Your API requests are authenticated using API keys. Keys can be created, retrieved, and deleted from your [Account Dashboard](https://account.etdata.org/settings/profile). Under the [API Keys](https://account.etdata.org/settings/api) tab you can generate multiple keys for a single account, however they will all be tied to the same quota. 

## Make Your First Request <mark style="color:blue;">(Programmatically)</mark>

In this example to make your first query, send an authenticated request to the *`raster/timeseries/point`* endpoint. The following code snippet will retrieve OpenET timeseries data from a single longitude, latitude point in a `json` format.&#x20;

{% tabs %}
{% tab title="curl" %}

```bash
curl -X 'POST' \
  'https://openet-api.org/raster/timeseries/point' \
  -H 'accept: application/json' \
  -H 'Authorization: YOUR_API_KEY' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
  "date_range": [
    "2020-01-01",
    "2020-12-31"
  ],
  "interval": "monthly",
  "geometry": [
    -121.36322,
    38.87626
  ],
  "model": "Ensemble",
  "variable": "ET",
  "reference_et": "gridMET",
  "units": "mm",
  "file_format": "JSON"
}'
```

{% endtab %}

{% tab title="Python" %}

```python
import requests

# set your API key before making the request
header = {"Authorization": YOUR_API_KEY}

# endpoint arguments
args = {
  "date_range": [
    "2020-01-01",
    "2020-12-31"
  ],
  "interval": "monthly",
  "geometry": [
    -121.36322,
    38.87626
  ],
  "model": "Ensemble",
  "variable": "ET",
  "reference_et": "gridMET",
  "units": "mm",
  "file_format": "JSON"
}

# query the api 
resp = requests.post(
    headers=header,
    json=args,
    url="https://openet-api.org/raster/timeseries/point"
)

print(resp.json())
```

{% endtab %}
{% endtabs %}

## Make Your First Request <mark style="color:blue;">(GUI)</mark>

If you are less comfortable around a computer terminal and excel is more your pace, you may find our graphical user interface (GUI) useful. Visiting <https://openet-api.org> directly will take you to the public API server. When you visit the page for the first time you will need to click the<img src="https://3342101665-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2Fp6krz4jcrv0IsfRERGXc%2Fuploads%2Fl8iC9vY66BZv3ckscHPb%2FScreen%20Shot%202023-04-11%20at%208.55.39%20AM.png?alt=media&#x26;token=c3096eec-9c39-4e35-ab20-63a79c472b5b" alt="" data-size="line">button and add your API key. The browser will remember the API key and you won't need to do this step again until your browser cache has been cleared.&#x20;

Scroll down a little to the *raster/timeseries/point* tab and expand it. All fields will be prefilled, but you can manually change them if you like. Click the<img src="https://3342101665-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2Fp6krz4jcrv0IsfRERGXc%2Fuploads%2FWxFgIWu9X4VLMvS2I6w5%2FScreen%20Shot%202023-04-11%20at%209.16.29%20AM.png?alt=media&#x26;token=6ec00430-30a2-48d7-ad40-b960d33fe32f" alt="" data-size="line">button to run the query. A few seconds later you should see the return result just below.&#x20;