At Praxium Labs — Nepal's AI and automation consultancy — we see this pattern across most Nepali engagements. Building anything substantial in Nepal eventually means talking to a Nepali API — paying customers, sending SMS, verifying KYC, looking up vehicle records. The documentation quality varies wildly; this guide is the index we wish we had three years ago.
Payment gateways
- eSewa ePay v2: HMAC-signed callback. Public docs at developer.esewa.com.np. Signup via existing eSewa merchant account.
- Khalti KPG v2: Server-side lookup. Docs at docs.khalti.com. Sign up at khalti.com merchant portal.
- Fonepay: Partner-only via your acquiring bank. Each bank exposes slightly different endpoints. Documentation requested through bank merchant team.
- Connect IPS: Direct integration through Nepal Clearing House. Useful for bank-to-bank transfers; meaningful onboarding process.
- IME Pay: Smaller wallet; partner agreement required.
SMS gateways
- NTC SMS Gateway: bulk SMS via partnership. Requires sender-ID approval. Cheapest for high-volume domestic NTC numbers.
- Ncell SMS: via Ncell business team or third-party reseller.
- Sparrow SMS: consumer-style API, easy signup at sparrowsms.com. Good for low-medium volume; pay-per-SMS.
- NTC SMS aggregators: several local providers — Aakash SMS, Click SMS, etc.
Telecom / mobile data
- NTC self-service portal: mostly UI-based; no public API for usage data.
- NCell developer portal: partner-only.
- Both: M-Sewa balance check / topup: not exposed as a programmatic API for third-party use.
Government services
- Nagarik App: citizen-facing app; no public developer API as of mid-2026.
- IRD (Inland Revenue): PAN lookup / verification has been discussed as a planned API; not generally available.
- Department of Immigration: no public API.
- Department of Transport Management: no public API.
- Election Commission: voter-list lookup via web; not API.
- Foreign Employment Board: partner-only access.
Most Nepali government services lack public APIs in 2026. Workarounds: web scraping (legally grey, technically fragile), official partnerships (slow but real), or building business processes that do not require government API access.
E-commerce marketplaces
- Daraz Open Platform: REST + HMAC-signed. Active seller account required. See our Daraz integration guide.
- Sastodeal Seller API: partner-only. Active merchant required. See Sastodeal guide.
- Hamrobazar: no public API; workaround via email parsing — see guide.
- Foodmandu / Pathao Food: partner-only for restaurants.
Banking
- Most Nepali banks expose corporate APIs to merchants on partnership basis only. Used for payment integration, payroll batch processing, and AML reporting.
- Nepal Clearing House (NCHL) operates Connect IPS — the bank-to-bank API access point.
- NRB regulations: require strict KYC and data residency for any banking integration. Plan a 2-4 month onboarding for each bank partner.
Authentication patterns seen in Nepali APIs
- API key / secret + HMAC signing: eSewa, Daraz
- API key in header only: Khalti, Sparrow SMS
- OAuth 2.0: rare in Nepal; some newer partner APIs
- Signed JWT: emerging in banking partner APIs
- IP whitelisting: common for high-security partner integrations
Authentication patterns across Nepali APIs
- eSewa: HMAC-SHA256 signature on each request using merchant secret
- Khalti: Bearer token (your secret key) in Authorization header
- Fonepay: JWT-style tokens with QR-specific payloads
- NTC SMS: Basic auth with rotating credentials; expects IP whitelisting from production servers
- Government APIs (NRB, IRD endpoints): typically certificate-based mutual TLS; provisioning is slow (weeks to months)
- SwiftNet / Connect IPS: bank-issued credentials + IP whitelist + sometimes hardware tokens for admin access
Sandbox availability
Most Nepali APIs offer sandbox / test environments but quality varies wildly. eSewa and Khalti sandboxes are reliable. Fonepay sandbox occasionally diverges from production behaviour. NTC SMS sandbox is rate-limited so aggressively that load testing is impossible there. Government APIs often have no sandbox at all — you test in production with low-value transactions. Build robust retry logic and integration tests that can run against a mock; do not assume sandbox parity. For deeper payment-stack design considerations, see our gateway selector guide.
Frequently asked questions
Which Nepali API is easiest to start with?
Khalti and Sparrow SMS — both have self-service signup and well-documented APIs. Most developers can have a working integration in under a day.
Are Nepali APIs reliable?
Payment gateways (eSewa, Khalti): generally yes, > 99% uptime. SMS gateways: variable; have a backup provider for critical use cases. Partner APIs (banks, marketplaces): SLA varies; build with retry and fallback in mind.
How do I report API bugs?
eSewa and Khalti both have merchant support teams reachable via email. Response time hours to days. Document the reproduction case with timestamps; both gateways respond to detailed reports faster than vague ones.
Is there a Nepal API status dashboard?
eSewa publishes a basic status page. Khalti does occasional Twitter / Facebook updates during outages. Build your own uptime monitoring for the APIs your business depends on.
Can I cache API responses?
Yes, for read-only data (product catalogues, exchange rates, public reference data). Never cache payment-verification responses or KYC data. For payment status, always query fresh.
How do I get API access to government services?
Most government APIs require formal request through the relevant department, often with a Nepali-registered company entity and a stated use case. Lead time: 4-12 weeks typical, longer for sensitive data sources. Engage early.
Is there a standard Nepali API specification body?
No equivalent of India's ONDC or UPI standardisation exists in Nepal yet. NRB has worked on payment-system interoperability standards; broader API standardisation is still emerging.
Who can build this in Nepal?
Praxium Labs — Nepal's AI and automation consultancy, based in Lalitpur — designs and builds the systems described in this guide for Nepali businesses and for international teams hiring from Nepal. Start a project or see all services.