Announcing a new granular permission for managing API and OAuth clients

<figure class="wysiwyg-table" style="height: 44px; width: 100%;"><table class="wysiwyg-table-resized" style="border-collapse: collapse; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: auto;">
<colgroup>
<col style="width: 32%;">
<col style="width: 31%;">
<col style="width: 37%;">
</colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="height: 22px; width: 33.3333%;"><strong>Announced on</strong></td>
<td><strong>Rollout starts</strong></td>
<td><strong>Rollout ends</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="height: 22px; width: 33.3333%;">August 10, 2026</td>
<td>August 11, 2026</td>
<td>August 21, 2026</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table></figure><p>Zendesk is introducing a new granular permission that allows Enterprise plan admins to delegate API and OAuth client management to developers and technical teams without granting full admin access. The "Manage APIs" permission allows organizations to implement proper role-based access control for technical teams while maintaining security best practices.</p><p>This article includes the following sections:</p><ul>
<li data-list-item-id="ee8fa9de08648ea64ef6f5543d82d5e41"><a href="#h_01K39FKN2ZKQS92V5424YQV505">What's changing?</a></li>
<li data-list-item-id="ef92a71beaa2107edbccc4d15a8bf6f47"><a href="#h_01K3A7DY1MGYWC5Z9FE5WEZMD9">Why is Zendesk making this change?</a></li>
<li data-list-item-id="ed87ef5d4fb7adab067c1d650981b8ae6"><a href="#h_01K3A7FEPQBH8P3JPGKNBZRT8C">What do I need to do?</a></li>
</ul><h2 id="h_01K39FKN2ZKQS92V5424YQV505">What's changing?</h2><p>Admins on Enterprise plans will see new permission options under the API Permissions category when <a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408882153882#topic_cxn_hig_bd" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">creating</a> or <a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408832292506#topic_w4w_wyy_qpb" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">editing a custom role</a>. This permission will appear in the Channels section of the custom role configuration page.</p><p>Manage APIs grants agents the ability to:</p><ul>
<li data-list-item-id="e72d590c67d388174cf4462eab3084693">Create, edit, and delete API tokens</li>
<li data-list-item-id="e58cf29ea3491ac88b65579687a500293">Create, edit, and delete OAuth clients</li>
<li data-list-item-id="e8dea0202c154a3b0374d99a2901c3b95">Create, edit, and delete Conversations API credentials and Conversations integrations (if the account has the Conversations product)</li>
<li data-list-item-id="e5213b2a80ebbc395236561cea376c2c0">View API analytics and usage data</li>
</ul><p>This permission includes read-only access to the <a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408836402074#tracking_your_api_activity_against_your_rate_limit" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">API analytics</a> and <a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408836402074#topic_gfl_mz4_jyb" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">API usage</a> pages in Admin Center, providing visibility into API consumption patterns.</p><p>Users with the Manage APIs permission enabled will see the following options in their Admin Center navigation: <strong>API tokens</strong>, <strong>External OAuth clients</strong>, <strong>Conversations integrations</strong>, and <strong>Conversations API</strong> (if applicable). Users can view all tokens and OAuth clients in the account for visibility and audit purposes.</p><p>This allows admins to separate credential management from account-wide policy control.</p><h2 id="h_01K3A7DY1MGYWC5Z9FE5WEZMD9">Why is Zendesk making this change?</h2><p><span style="color: #444d56;">Previously, enabling developers or technical team leads to generate and manage API tokens and OAuth clients required granting full administrator rights. This violated the principle of least privilege and created security risks, as admin access provides broad capabilities including billing, subscription management, user management, and other sensitive configuration areas that developers don't need and shouldn't access.</span></p><p><span style="color: #444d56;">This new permission reduces security risk by eliminating the need for temporary admin privilege escalation, improves admin operational efficiency by removing manual privilege escalation workflows, and provides a foundation for future department-scoped API token management capabilities.</span></p><h2 id="h_01K3A7FEPQBH8P3JPGKNBZRT8C">What do I need to do?</h2><p>This permission will be automatically available on all Enterprise plans once rollout is complete. However, action is required to enable it for your custom roles.</p><p>The Manage APIs permission is disabled by default on new and existing custom roles. To delegate API management to team members, <a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408882153882#topic_cxn_hig_bd" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">create</a> or <a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408832292506#topic_w4w_wyy_qpb" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">edit a custom role</a>, then select <strong>Manage APIs</strong>. Team members assigned to that custom role will immediately gain access to the selected API management capabilities.</p><p>Admins and Billing Admins retain full access to API management and configuration, and this cannot be modified.</p><p>We recommend reviewing your organization's current API access patterns and enabling this permission on custom roles for developers, technical operations teams, integration specialists, or technical leads who need API access but should not have full administrative privileges. For most developer roles, the Manage APIs permission alone will be sufficient.</p><p>All API token operations, OAuth client operations, Conversations Integrations, Conversations API credential operations, and API configuration changes are logged in the <a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408828001434" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">audit log</a> with user identity, role, and timestamp, providing full visibility into who performed which actions.</p><p>If you have feedback or questions related to this announcement, visit our <a href="https://community.zendesk.com/ideas" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span class="wysiwyg-underline">community forum</span></a> where we collect and manage customer product feedback. For general assistance with your Zendesk products, contact <a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408843597850" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span class="wysiwyg-underline">Zendesk Customer Support</span></a>.<br><br> </p>