1. Before you start
You need your OKX login and, ideally, a laptop. An OKX key is three things, one more than other exchanges: the API key, the secret key, and a passphrase you make up yourself. OKX shows the secret key once, and it never shows the passphrase at all — so keep the passphrase somewhere safe before you leave the page.
2. Make the key
Sign in at okx.com. Open the menu behind the profile icon in the top right and choose API and connections.
OKX's home page with the account menu in the top right open, and API and connections in it. Choose Create API key. Give the key a name you will recognise later — Dashing Crypto is fine — and leave Used for on API trading. Then check the lower half of the form:
- Permissions — Read is already ticked and cannot be unticked. It is the only one the app needs. Leave Withdraw, Earn, Transfer and Trade clear.
- Trusted IP addresses — off. OKX marks the switch as recommended, and for a key that could trade it would be. This key can only read, and a phone's address changes every time it moves between Wi-Fi and mobile data, so a key limited to one address stops working the moment it does.
- Passphrase — type one of your own: 8 to 32 characters, with a capital letter, a small letter, a number and a sign. The app will ask you for it, and OKX never shows it again.
Choose Submit all. OKX asks for your verification codes. A key that can only read does not expire; the 14-day rule on the page is for keys that can trade or withdraw.
The Create API keys page: a name typed, Read the only permission ticked, Trusted IP addresses off, and a passphrase typed. The new key appears in the list, and OKX opens it to show the API key and the Secret key. Copy each one whole, now — the secret key is not shown again once you close this window. If it is already gone, delete this key and make another.
The new key opened: its API key and secret key, Permissions Read, and Trusted IP access not enabled.
3. Paste it into the app
In Dashing Crypto, open Accounts and choose Connect an exchange, then OKX. If you already have an account, the same choice is behind the + at the top right.
Accounts, before anything is connected: the third row is Connect an exchange. Connect an exchange: OKX is the third row. Paste the API key in the API key box and the secret key in the Secret key box, type your passphrase in the Passphrase box, then tap Connect. The app checks all three with OKX before it saves anything, so a value in the wrong box is caught here rather than later.
Connect OKX: the API key, secret key and passphrase boxes, and the note that the key only reads. All three boxes filled, and Connect lit.
That is it. Your OKX balance appears in the same list as your accounts, and updates on its own. OKX keeps money in two places, a Funding account and a Trading account; the app adds both into one figure.
4. If it does not connect
OKX says which of the three values it did not like, and the app passes that on. Two things cover almost every case:
- All three values whole, in the right boxes. The API key has dashes in it, the secret key is 32 letters and numbers, and the passphrase is the one you typed when you made the key. Paste each again.
- Trusted IP addresses is off. A key limited to trusted addresses answers every phone the same way, and the app says so. On OKX, open the key, choose Edit and turn the switch off; you do not need a new key.
Still stuck? Support can help with a connection. Never send anyone the secret key or the passphrase — not us, not OKX's support, not anyone.