# Celo Faucet — full reference

> Free testnet CELO for Celo Sepolia. Browser flow for humans, API keys for
> scripts and AI agents.

Site: https://faucet.celo.org
Source: https://github.com/celo-org/faucet
Network: Celo Sepolia, chain ID 11142220 (eip155:11142220)
Token: native CELO only. No stablecoins, no mainnet.

## How do I get Celo Sepolia testnet tokens?

Open https://faucet.celo.org/celo-sepolia, paste the address you want funded,
and submit. You receive 1 CELO. Signing in with GitHub raises that to 3 CELO
and raises your daily allowance from 4 requests to 10.

## How much CELO does the faucet send?

1 CELO per unauthenticated request. 3 CELO per authenticated request.

## How many requests can I make?

4 per day unauthenticated, 10 per day authenticated. The limit is applied both
to the requesting identity and to the beneficiary address, so funding the same
address from several accounts does not multiply the allowance.

You count as authenticated if any of these is true:

- you are signed in with GitHub
- the beneficiary address holds at least 0.01 ETH on Ethereum mainnet
- the beneficiary address holds at least 100 LockedCELO on Celo mainnet

## Does the Celo faucet have an API?

Yes. Two endpoints, documented as OpenAPI at
https://faucet.celo.org/openapi.json

### POST /api/faucet

Request funds.

    curl -X POST https://faucet.celo.org/api/faucet \
      -H "Authorization: Bearer $CELO_FAUCET_API_KEY" \
      -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
      -d '{"beneficiary":"0xYourAddress","network":"celo-sepolia"}'

Returns HTTP 200 with `{"status":"Pending","key":"<requestKey>"}`. The payout is
queued, not yet settled — poll the status endpoint with the returned key.

### GET /api/status

Poll for the outcome.

    curl "https://faucet.celo.org/api/status?key=<requestKey>&network=celo-sepolia"

Returns `{"status":"Done","beneficiary":"0x...","txHash":"0x..."}`. The status
field is one of `Pending`, `Working`, `Done`, `Failed`. Responses are sent with
`Cache-Control: no-store`.

## How can an AI agent get testnet CELO?

The browser flow is gated on reCAPTCHA v3, which scores headless callers badly
and cannot be solved without driving a real browser. Agents use an API key,
which skips the captcha entirely.

Today a key is minted by a human: sign in with GitHub at
https://faucet.celo.org/keys, create a key, and give it to the agent. The key is
displayed once and stored only as a hash, so it cannot be recovered later.

## API keys

- Format `cfk_<env>_<keyId>_<secret>`. Send as `Authorization: Bearer <key>`.
- Maximum 2 keys per GitHub account. Holding two does not double any allowance.
- Each key expires 90 days after it is created.
- Keyed requests draw on the same daily allowance as the GitHub account that
  created the key.
- Keys are valid for Celo Sepolia only.
- Never commit a key. Keys found in public repositories are revoked without
  notice.

## Response codes

| Status | error | Meaning |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 200 | — | Request accepted and queued. Poll `/api/status`. |
| 400 | — | Invalid network, invalid beneficiary address, or a network the key cannot use. |
| 401 | `invalid_api_key` | Missing, malformed, unknown or expired key. |
| 401 | `api_key_disabled` | Key authentication is switched off server-side. |
| 405 | — | Wrong HTTP method. |
| 429 | `faucet_limit_exceeded` | Rate limited. Honour the `Retry-After` header. |
| 503 | `faucet_unavailable` | A dependency behind the faucet is down. `Retry-After: 30`. |

The `error` field is machine-readable so a caller can branch without parsing
prose. HTTP 429 is returned on the API-key path; the browser path returns 403
for the same condition, for backwards compatibility.

## Rate limits

- Per identity: 4 requests/day unauthenticated, 10/day authenticated.
- Per beneficiary address: the same, shared across the browser and key paths.
- Programmatic burst: 20 requests per 10 minutes across all keys.
- Programmatic daily ceiling: 200 requests per day across all keys.
- The per-IP bucket is skipped for keyed requests, because CI runners and agent
  hosts share egress IPs and the key owner is already the identity being limited.

## Getting other tokens

- USDC: https://faucet.circle.com/
- Mento stablecoins: swap CELO at https://app.mento.org/
- Alternative Celo Sepolia faucet: https://cloud.google.com/application/web3/faucet/celo/sepolia
- Larger amounts for testing: there is a request form linked from
  https://faucet.celo.org/celo-sepolia

## Should CI use the faucet?

Usually not. `anvil --fork-url https://forno.celo-sepolia.celo-testnet.org`
gives pre-funded accounts against forked state, with no rate limit and no
network dependency. Reach for a key only when you need funds on the real testnet.

## Support

- Discord: https://chat.celo.org
- Issues and discussions: https://github.com/celo-org/faucet
- Celo developer docs: https://docs.celo.org