This guide takes you from zero to a working classification in three steps.
1. Create an account Sign up at instant-classification-api.thedatacity.com/signup . You need:
A work email address — free providers (Gmail, Outlook, iCloud, Proton) are not accepted.
A password (minimum 8 characters).
To accept the Terms & Conditions .
New accounts start on the free tier with a limited request quota for evaluation. See Rate limits & quotas for details.
2. Get an access token Exchange your email and password for a JWT using the token endpoint. The token is valid for 8 days .
curl -sS -X POST "https://instant-classification-api.thedatacity.com/api/v1/login/access-token" \ -H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" \ -d "username=you@yourcompany.com&password=YOUR_PASSWORD"
A successful response looks like this:
{ "access_token" : "eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9..." , "token_type" : "bearer" }
Treat your access token like a password. Don’t check it into source control or include it in frontend bundles.
3. Classify a company Send a POST to /api/v1/instantClassification with either Text (a company description) or Website (a URL) — not both. Include your token in the Authorization header.
Send one of Text or Website per request. Sending both can produce unreliable results.
Classify by description: curl -sS -X POST "https://instant-classification-api.thedatacity.com/api/v1/instantClassification" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"Text": "Software development and consulting services"}'
Or classify by website: curl -sS -X POST "https://instant-classification-api.thedatacity.com/api/v1/instantClassification" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"Website": "https://example.com"}'
A successful response includes classifications across all taxonomies:
{ "RTICs" : [ { "Code" : "10.01.01" , "Description" : "Software Development" , "Score" : 0.92 , "WordsMatched" : 3 } ], "RSICs" : [ { "Code" : "62012" , "Description" : "Business and domestic software development" , "Score" : 0.88 } ], "RNAICs" : [ { "Code" : "541511" , "Description" : "Custom Computer Programming Services" , "Score" : 0.85 } ], "SICs" : [ { "Code" : "62012" , "Description" : "Business and domestic software development" } ], "SimilarCompanies" : [ { "CompanyNumber" : "12345678" , "CompanyName" : "Example Software Ltd" , "Website" : "https://example-software.co.uk" , "Similarity" : 0.91 } ], "TotalWordsProcessed" : 5 , "ProcessingTimeMs" : 342 , "Website" : "https://example.com" , "Description" : "Software development and consulting services" }
What’s next
Authentication Token lifetime and password recovery.
Errors What each error code means and how to handle it.
Rate limits & quotas Free-tier quota and paid rate limits.
Endpoint reference Full request/response schema with the interactive playground.
