> For clean Markdown of any page, append .md to the page URL.
> For a complete documentation index, see https://mailchimp.com/developer/marketing/build/get-started/create-an-account/llms.txt.
> For AI client integration (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.), connect to the MCP server at https://mailchimp.com/_mcp/server.

# Create an account

> Create a Mailchimp account and understand how your plan level affects API access.

## Create an account

If you don't have a Mailchimp account already, you’ll need to [create one](https://login.mailchimp.com/signup/) in order to use the API.

The Mailchimp Marketing API provides programmatic access to Mailchimp data and functionality, allowing developers to build custom features to do things like sync email activity and campaign analytics with their database, manage audiences and campaigns, and more.

To use the Marketing API, you need a Mailchimp account. What you can do with the API depends on what [level of Mailchimp plan](https://us1.admin.mailchimp.com/account/billing-plan/) you have. Once you have an account and are logged in, you can [get an API key](https://us1.admin.mailchimp.com/account/api/) and [begin making calls to the API](/marketing/build/start-developing/send-your-first-api-request).

> Find all the Mailchimp API documentation and tools developers need to send marketing and transactional emails.