Create an account
Creates an account for the entity. An internal account is one the entity pays from (a bank account added through Plaid or, for selected partners, by its account and routing numbers). An external account is a payee the entity pays to, reachable by ACH, paper check, domestic wire, or virtual card. Authenticate with your api-key, or with a scoped session token from POST /accounts/link (which can only create internal accounts).
const options = {
method: 'POST',
headers: {
'Melio-Entity-Id': '<melio-entity-id>',
'api-key': '<api-key>',
'Content-Type': 'application/json'
},
body: JSON.stringify({
ownershipType: 'internal',
type: 'ach',
nickname: 'Operating account',
bankAccount: {
accountType: 'checking',
accountNumber: '000123456789',
routingNumber: '021000021'
}
})
};
fetch('https://api.melio.com/v2/accounts', options)
.then(res => res.json())
.then(res => console.log(res))
.catch(err => console.error(err));{
"id": "acct_3f2504e0-4f89-41d3-9a0c-0305e82c3301",
"ownershipType": "internal",
"type": "ach",
"nickname": "Operating account",
"isVerified": true,
"bankAccount": {
"accountType": "checking",
"routingNumber": "021000021",
"accountNumberLast4": "6789"
},
"createdAt": "2026-07-08T15:04:05Z",
"updatedAt": "2026-07-08T15:04:05Z"
}Headers
Body
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Create an account. ownershipType selects internal (an internal account the entity pays from) or external (an external account the entity pays to); type selects the instrument. Supported combinations: internal ach, internal card, external ach, external check, external domestic-wire, external virtual-card, external counterparty-choice, external international-fx, external international-gusd.
The two international types additionally require the partner to be enabled for international payouts, and the entity to have completed international onboarding — see PUT /entities/{entityId}/beneficial-owners. A business that has not returns 409 ENTITY_ONBOARDING_INCOMPLETE listing the outstanding fields.
Your own unique identifier for the resource. Unique per partner per resource type (reusing one returns 409 DUPLICATE_EXTERNAL_ID). Distinct from the Idempotency-Key header, which dedupes the request rather than identifying the resource.
255^[A-Za-z0-9_-]+$Free-form string key/value pairs stored and returned verbatim, never interpreted by Melio. Up to 500 keys; each key 1 to 40 chars and may not contain square brackets ([ ], reserved for the metadata[key] filter); value ≤100 chars. The whole object must serialize to at most 128KB of JSON. Filterable via metadata[key].
Response
Account created.
Your own unique identifier for the resource. Unique per partner per resource type (reusing one returns 409 DUPLICATE_EXTERNAL_ID). Distinct from the Idempotency-Key header, which dedupes the request rather than identifying the resource.
255^[A-Za-z0-9_-]+$Free-form string key/value pairs stored and returned verbatim, never interpreted by Melio. Up to 500 keys; each key 1 to 40 chars and may not contain square brackets ([ ], reserved for the metadata[key] filter); value ≤100 chars. The whole object must serialize to at most 128KB of JSON. Filterable via metadata[key].
Present when type=check.
Hide child attributes
Hide child attributes
Address as returned in responses; fields may be absent when the stored record is incomplete.
Present when type=domestic-wire.
Hide child attributes
Hide child attributes
Address as returned in responses; fields may be absent when the stored record is incomplete.
Present when type=international-fx. The submitted bank identifiers are stored encrypted, so only the last four characters are returned.
Hide child attributes
Hide child attributes
Address as returned in responses; fields may be absent when the stored record is incomplete.
const options = {
method: 'POST',
headers: {
'Melio-Entity-Id': '<melio-entity-id>',
'api-key': '<api-key>',
'Content-Type': 'application/json'
},
body: JSON.stringify({
ownershipType: 'internal',
type: 'ach',
nickname: 'Operating account',
bankAccount: {
accountType: 'checking',
accountNumber: '000123456789',
routingNumber: '021000021'
}
})
};
fetch('https://api.melio.com/v2/accounts', options)
.then(res => res.json())
.then(res => console.log(res))
.catch(err => console.error(err));{
"id": "acct_3f2504e0-4f89-41d3-9a0c-0305e82c3301",
"ownershipType": "internal",
"type": "ach",
"nickname": "Operating account",
"isVerified": true,
"bankAccount": {
"accountType": "checking",
"routingNumber": "021000021",
"accountNumberLast4": "6789"
},
"createdAt": "2026-07-08T15:04:05Z",
"updatedAt": "2026-07-08T15:04:05Z"
}