Place a Crypto Order with the Coinbase Advanced Trade API

The Coinbase Advanced Trade API gives you full programmatic control over order placement, letting you buy and sell crypto assets directly from your application. Whether you need to execute an immediate market order, set a precise limit price, or define a stop-limit trigger, a single POST /api/v3/brokerage/orders endpoint handles all order types through a flexible order_configuration object. This guide walks you through each step of the process and shows you concrete examples for the most common order types.

Prerequisites

Before placing orders, make sure you have:

A valid JWT token (see Authentication)
Sufficient funds in your Coinbase account for the order side and size
The correct product_id for the trading pair you want to trade (e.g., BTC-USD)

Place an order

Choose your product and side

Every order targets a specific trading pair called a product. Products follow the format BASE-QUOTE (e.g., BTC-USD, ETH-USDC). You can retrieve the full list of available products with GET /api/v3/brokerage/products.Along with the product, you must specify a side:

Side	Description
`BUY`	Purchase the base currency using quote funds
`SELL`	Sell the base currency to receive quote funds

For example, a BUY on BTC-USD spends US dollars to acquire Bitcoin; a SELL on BTC-USD sells Bitcoin for US dollars.

Choose your order type and set parameters

The order_configuration object determines the order type and its parameters. Each type uses a distinct key inside order_configuration:

Key	Order Type	Key Parameters
`market_market_ioc`	Market order (immediate-or-cancel)	`quote_size` or `base_size`
`limit_limit_gtc`	Limit order (good-till-cancelled)	`base_size`, `limit_price`
`limit_limit_gtd`	Limit order (good-till-date)	`base_size`, `limit_price`, `end_time`
`stop_limit_stop_limit_gtc`	Stop-limit (good-till-cancelled)	`base_size`, `limit_price`, `stop_price`, `stop_direction`

For market buys, use quote_size to specify how many dollars (or quote currency units) to spend. For market sells, use base_size to specify how much of the base asset to sell.

Submit POST /api/v3/brokerage/orders

Send a POST request to https://api.coinbase.com/api/v3/brokerage/orders with your JWT in the Authorization header and a JSON body containing at minimum:

client_order_id — a unique string you generate to identify this order
product_id — the trading pair
side — BUY or SELL
order_configuration — the order type object with its parameters

See the code examples below for market, limit, and stop-limit orders.

Handle the response and confirm your order ID

A successful response returns "success": true along with an order_id (a UUID assigned by Coinbase) and an order_configuration echo. Store the order_id — you will need it to query order status, cancel the order, or reconcile fills.If the request fails, the response body contains a preview_failure_reason or error_response field explaining why. See the Error handling section below for common error codes.

Code examples

Market buy order

A market buy executes immediately at the best available price. Use quote_size to specify the amount of quote currency (e.g., USD) you want to spend.

curl -X POST https://api.coinbase.com/api/v3/brokerage/orders \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $JWT" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "client_order_id": "my-order-001",
    "product_id": "BTC-USD",
    "side": "BUY",
    "order_configuration": {
      "market_market_ioc": {
        "quote_size": "100"
      }
    }
  }'

import requests
import json

url = "https://api.coinbase.com/api/v3/brokerage/orders"
headers = {
    "Authorization": f"Bearer {JWT}",
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
}
payload = {
    "client_order_id": "my-order-001",
    "product_id": "BTC-USD",
    "side": "BUY",
    "order_configuration": {
        "market_market_ioc": {
            "quote_size": "100"
        }
    }
}

response = requests.post(url, headers=headers, json=payload)
data = response.json()
print("Order ID:", data["order_id"])

const response = await fetch(
  "https://api.coinbase.com/api/v3/brokerage/orders",
  {
    method: "POST",
    headers: {
      Authorization: `Bearer ${JWT}`,
      "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      client_order_id: "my-order-001",
      product_id: "BTC-USD",
      side: "BUY",
      order_configuration: {
        market_market_ioc: {
          quote_size: "100",
        },
      },
    }),
  }
);

const data = await response.json();
console.log("Order ID:", data.order_id);

Limit sell order

A limit sell places an order on the order book that executes only when the market price reaches your specified limit_price or better. The order remains open until filled or cancelled (gtc = good-till-cancelled).

curl -X POST https://api.coinbase.com/api/v3/brokerage/orders \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $JWT" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "client_order_id": "limit-sell-001",
    "product_id": "BTC-USD",
    "side": "SELL",
    "order_configuration": {
      "limit_limit_gtc": {
        "base_size": "0.001",
        "limit_price": "70000"
      }
    }
  }'

import requests

url = "https://api.coinbase.com/api/v3/brokerage/orders"
headers = {
    "Authorization": f"Bearer {JWT}",
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
}
payload = {
    "client_order_id": "limit-sell-001",
    "product_id": "BTC-USD",
    "side": "SELL",
    "order_configuration": {
        "limit_limit_gtc": {
            "base_size": "0.001",
            "limit_price": "70000"
        }
    }
}

response = requests.post(url, headers=headers, json=payload)
data = response.json()
print("Order ID:", data["order_id"])
print("Status:", data.get("success"))

Stop-limit order

A stop-limit order triggers a limit order when the market reaches your stop_price. Use STOP_DIRECTION_STOP_UP to trigger on a price rise, or STOP_DIRECTION_STOP_DOWN to trigger on a price drop.

curl -X POST https://api.coinbase.com/api/v3/brokerage/orders \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $JWT" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "client_order_id": "stop-limit-001",
    "product_id": "BTC-USD",
    "side": "SELL",
    "order_configuration": {
      "stop_limit_stop_limit_gtc": {
        "base_size": "0.01",
        "limit_price": "59500",
        "stop_price": "60000",
        "stop_direction": "STOP_DIRECTION_STOP_DOWN"
      }
    }
  }'

import requests

url = "https://api.coinbase.com/api/v3/brokerage/orders"
headers = {
    "Authorization": f"Bearer {JWT}",
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
}
payload = {
    "client_order_id": "stop-limit-001",
    "product_id": "BTC-USD",
    "side": "SELL",
    "order_configuration": {
        "stop_limit_stop_limit_gtc": {
            "base_size": "0.01",
            "limit_price": "59500",
            "stop_price": "60000",
            "stop_direction": "STOP_DIRECTION_STOP_DOWN",
        }
    },
}

response = requests.post(url, headers=headers, json=payload)
data = response.json()
print("Order ID:", data["order_id"])
print("Success:", data.get("success"))

Success response

A successful POST /orders response looks like this:

{
  "success": true,
  "order_id": "a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7890-abcd-ef1234567890",
  "client_order_id": "my-order-001",
  "order_configuration": {
    "market_market_ioc": {
      "quote_size": "100"
    }
  }
}

Field	Type	Description
`success`	boolean	`true` when the order was accepted
`order_id`	string	Coinbase-assigned UUID for this order
`client_order_id`	string	The ID you supplied in the request
`order_configuration`	object	Echo of the order type and parameters you submitted

Always generate a unique client_order_id for every order request. If a network timeout causes you to retry, submitting the same client_order_id will be rejected as a duplicate rather than creating a second order — protecting you from accidental double-fills.

Error handling

When "success": false or the HTTP status is 4xx, the response includes an error code you can use to diagnose the problem programmatically.

{
  "success": false,
  "failure_reason": "INSUFFICIENT_FUND",
  "preview_failure_reason": "PREVIEW_INSUFFICIENT_FUND",
  "error_response": {
    "error": "INSUFFICIENT_FUND",
    "message": "Insufficient funds to place this order.",
    "preview_failure_reason": "PREVIEW_INSUFFICIENT_FUND"
  }
}

Error Code	HTTP Status	Cause & Resolution
`INSUFFICIENT_FUND`	400	Your account does not have enough balance. Check your available funds and reduce order size.
`INVALID_PRODUCT_ID`	400	The `product_id` does not exist or is misspelled. Fetch `/api/v3/brokerage/products` to verify.
`ORDER_ENTRY_DISABLED`	400	Trading is temporarily suspended for this product. Retry after the suspension lifts.
`INVALID_LIMIT_PRICE`	400	The limit price violates the product’s minimum price increment. Check product details.
`PERMISSION_DENIED`	403	Your API key lacks trading permissions. Regenerate a key with the correct scopes.
`RATE_LIMIT_EXCEEDED`	429	Too many requests. Back off and retry using exponential backoff.

Before placing a large order, call GET /api/v3/brokerage/products/{product_id} to check the base_min_size, base_max_size, quote_increment, and base_increment fields. Submitting an order below the minimum size or with an incorrect increment is a common source of validation errors.

Get Started

Core Concepts

Guides

Resources

Place a Crypto Order with the Coinbase Advanced Trade API

Prerequisites

Place an order

Code examples

Market buy order

Limit sell order

Stop-limit order

Success response

Error handling

​Prerequisites

​Place an order

​Code examples

​Market buy order

​Limit sell order

​Stop-limit order

​Success response

​Error handling

Prerequisites

Place an order

Code examples

Market buy order

Limit sell order

Stop-limit order

Success response

Error handling