Introduction
The Paren API is a powerful, outbound API built on the industry standard OCPI 3.0 protocol. It's designed to make integration into your applications seamless and scalable. It delivers accurate, up-to-date information about EV charging infrastructure, usage, pricing, and amenities—ideal for powering mobility platforms, apps, and services.
Authentication
All API endpoints (except the healthcheck endpoint) require Basic Authentication.
Note: Contact API Support to obtain your API credentials.
For building the credential token, you need to:
- Combine the api key and secret key with a colon.
- The resulting string is base64 encoded.
For example, if your username and password are key and secret, the combination is key:secret, and when base64 encoded, it becomes a2V5OnNlY3JldA==. Requests are sent with the following header:
Authorization: Basic a2V5OnNlY3JldA==Core APIs
The Paren API consists of two main components:
- Realtime API - Provides current status information about charging stations, their availability, reliability, and current pricing.
- Metadata API - Delivers detailed information about charging stations, including historical performance, amenities, and pricing.
Response Format
All API responses follow a consistent format:
{
"data": [..],
"duration": "512ms",
"status_code": 200,
"status_message": "Success",
"timestamp": "2025-05-13T20:22:24.898517Z"
}
Error Handling
Error responses include detailed information to help diagnose issues:
{
"errors": ["[Error message]"],
"status_code": 400,
"timestamp": "2025-05-13T20:22:24.898517Z"
}
Common HTTP status codes:
- 200: Success
- 400: Bad Request (check request parameters)
- 500: Internal Server Error
Pagination
The Paren Data API endpoints can return more than 10,000 locations. Therefore, pagination is supported.
Limit & offset (All Endpoints)
Use the following two parameters to control the size of the response.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| limit | Limits the number of objects that are returned. The minimum value is 1 and the maximum value is 100. This parameter is optional and the default value is 100. |
| offset | Indicates the number of items to skip. This parameter is optional. The default value is 0 indicating that only the first page of the results is returned. |
Next Steps
- Explore the Realtime API for current charging station status
- Dive into the Metadata API for detailed station information
- Contact API Support with any questions