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Documentation Mercado Libre

Check out all the necessary information about APIs Mercado Libre.

Last update 19/12/2025

Start testing

At Mercado Libre, we don't have a test or sandbox environment. Instead, we provide test users to test directly in production. The advantage of working with a test user is that you can simulate the same actions allowed for real users—publish, update data, ask questions, answer, buy, sell, etc.—among test users, without paying charges, receiving penalties, or affecting a real user's reputation.

Once you get an access token, you can create a global and marketplace test user and simulate end-to-end operations. Learn more about the type of users.

Important:

API Update: The country_id parameter is now required when creating Global Test Users (CBT). Requests without this field will return a 400 Bad Request error.
All test operations must be made with test users. Personal accounts should not be used for testing.
Critical: Once the test user is created, save its credentials immediately. We do not have an endpoint to retrieve test users or their credentials after creation.
All site_id and country_id values must be in UPPERCASE (case-sensitive).

Send access token via header

For enhanced security, we recommend sending your access token via header when making API calls. This prevents your token from appearing in server logs or browser history.

Example:

curl -H 'Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN' \
https://api.mercadolibre.com/users/me

Create a global test user

Create a test user for Global Selling (Cross-Border Trade) operations. You must specify both the site_id (always "CBT") and the country_id ("US" for United States or "CN" for China).

Request (US Origin):

curl -X POST -H 'Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN' -H "Content-Type: application/json" https://api.mercadolibre.com/users/global_selling_test_user -d
{
    "site_id": "CBT",
    "country_id": "US"
}

Request (China Origin):

curl -X POST -H 'Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN' -H "Content-Type: application/json" https://api.mercadolibre.com/users/global_selling_test_user -d
{
    "site_id": "CBT",
    "country_id": "CN"
}

Response:

{
    "id": 2608734521,
    "nickname": "TESTGSELL2608734521",
    "password": "qatest9132",
    "site_status": "active",
    "email": "test_user_gs_2608734521@testuser.com"
}

On the response you get the following fields:

id: The unique identifier of the created test user.
nickname: The username assigned to the test user.
password: The password for the test user account. Store this securely; it cannot be recovered.
site_status: The current status of the user. Returns "active" upon successful creation.
email: The email address assigned to the test user.

Create a marketplace test user

In addition, you can create marketplace test users, in order to be able to do end-to-end tests, buying and selling between these.

Supported marketplaces: MLA (Argentina), MLB (Brazil), MLC (Chile), MCO (Colombia), MLM (Mexico), MPE (Peru).

Example:

curl -X POST -H 'Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN' -H "Content-Type: application/json" https://api.mercadolibre.com/users/test_user -d
{
    "site_id": "MLM"
}

Response:

{
    "id": 2608891234,
    "nickname": "TESTXYZ2608891234",
    "password": "qatest4521",
    "site_status": "active",
    "email": "test_user_2608891234@testuser.com"
}

On the response you get the following fields:

id: The unique identifier of the created test user.
nickname: The username assigned to the test user.
password: The password for the test user account. Store this securely; it cannot be recovered.
site_status: The current status of the user. Returns "active" upon successful creation.
email: The email address assigned to the test user.

Possible errors

The following errors may occur when creating test users:

Global Test User errors (POST /users/global_selling_test_user):

Status	Error	Message	Solution
400	bad_request	country_id is required	Include `country_id` with value `"US"` or `"CN"`.
400	bad_request	site_id is required	Include `site_id` parameter in the request body.
400	bad_request	invalid site_id	Use `"CBT"` as site_id. Must be uppercase.
400	bad_request	site_id cannot be null	Provide a valid string value, not `null`.
400	bad_request	site_id cannot be empty	Provide a non-empty string value.
400	bad_request	invalid site_id type	Ensure site_id is a string, not a number.
400	bad_request	Malformed JSON	Verify the request body contains valid JSON syntax.
400	bad_request	Invalid request body	Include a valid JSON body in the request.
403	forbidden	Invalid client.id	Verify your access token is valid and not expired.

Marketplace Test User errors (POST /users/test_user):

Status	Error	Message	Solution
400	bad_request	site_id is required	Include `site_id` parameter in the request body.
400	bad_request	invalid site_id	Use a valid site_id (MLA, MLB, MLC, MCO, MLM, MPE). Must be uppercase.
400	bad_request	invalid clientID format	Verify your access token format is correct.

Considerations

When working with test users, you need to take into account the following considerations:

Once you have created the test user for a global seller, you have to access global-selling to configure the marketplace account's.
You can create up to 10 test users with your Mercado Libre account and these cannot be eliminated by the user, nor by Mercado Libre.
Test users won't be active for too long, but once they expire, you can create new ones.
Test items must be titled "Test item - Do not offer" (Test Item - Please DO NOT BID) to clearly identify them as test listings.
List under the "Others" category as much as possible.
Never publish with "gold" or "gold_premium" listing types to prevent your test items from appearing on the homepage.
Test users can simulate operations only with listings from other test users: they can only buy, sell, ask questions, etc., in test list, created by test accounts.
Test users showing no activity (buy, ask, publish, etc.) during 60 days are immediately removed.
Test items are removed regularly.
The email's validation code for test users will be equal to the last digits of the user ID and can have 4 or 6 digits. For example, for user ID 653764425, the code could be 764425.
All site_id and country_id values are case-sensitive and must be in UPPERCASE.

Test user blocked?

If your test user is incorrectly blocked, contact support for the corresponding marketplace.

Buy and sell between test users

Remember that tests on the platform and all transactions must be done with test users. In addition, personal accounts should not contain ads. If you want to simulate purchases between test users, you could use our test cards. Remember that testing on the platform and all transactions must be done between test users. In addition, personal accounts must not contain listings for this purpose.

Notes:

The data to be uploaded is fictitious and, for security reasons, we do not add the names of the banks on the cards available for testing purposes.
When you access the test card link, you will need to change the URL to the URL of the country you are in. Please note that the link will only be available for countries where Mercado Pago is active.
To test different payment results, fill in the desired payment status in the cardholder's first and last name when making the purchase. For example, if you want the payment to be approved, you must enter "APRO APRO".

Next: Application and permissions.