A New Enhanced SmartThings API Experience

Announcements
1

A New Enhanced SmartThings API Experience

Upcoming Changes to the SmartThings API

SmartThings API Blog Image
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Please note, this was also shared on the SmartThings blog.

Over the last several years, the SmartThings platform has grown into one of the most robust orchestration layers in the smart home industry, with over 460M+ registered users and hundreds of WWST partner brands — and our API is the gateway that connects third party apps and platforms to the SmartThings ecosystem.

Today, our commercial partners use it to power everything from short-term rental platforms and energy management systems to API aggregators and custom smart home dashboards, while our developer community uses our API to optimize their personal smart homes.

To ensure the SmartThings API remains capable, reliable, and secure at this scale, we are evolving our infrastructure. In the upcoming months, we will introduce dedicated, paid commercial API tiers as well as a $4.99 a month plan for non-commercial, individual developers.

To note, this update does not affect the millions of SmartThings users who use the SmartThings App with thousands of WWST partner devices.

Why are we evolving the SmartThings API?

As our commercial partners and developer community continue to build integrations, they are asking and expecting more from our infrastructure. To support the next generation of smart home innovation at scale, we are transitioning to a structured API model. This evolution allows us to invest heavily in the enterprise-grade features our partners and users have been asking for:

  • Platform Stability: Upgrading our platform to enhance our enterprise-grade reliability required for high-volume, commercial deployments.

  • Optimized Integrations: Building upon our infrastructure to further support scalable integrations.

  • Expanded Capabilities: Continuing access to Samsung devices such as TVs, smart refrigerators, and more with device states, controls, and health parameters as well as future functionality to build richer integrations.

Powering the Next Generation of Smart Home Services

We’re building on the SmartThings platform, shaped by your feedback, to deliver even more powerful tools for creating premium IoT experiences. The SmartThings API offers different tiers that can support a high rate limit, gives access to our multi-protocol ecosystem (Matter, Cloud-to-Cloud, Zigbee, Z-Wave), and contains deep Samsung integration required to scale your business on our backend and power a variety of use cases, including:

  • Short-Term Rentals, Hospitality, and Property Tech: Automate access control, optimize climate, and enable seamless property management across thousands of units at scale.

  • Telecommunications: Enhance broadband and 5G subscriber apps with premium family care and security solutions.

  • Security: Power smart alarms, access systems, and remote monitoring with our ecosystem of devices and consistent, real-time API data like device states.

  • Senior Care: Enable non-intrusive wellness tracking, activity insights, and automated routines to safely support independent living and aging in place.

  • Family Care: Deliver peace of mind with real-time sensor data, keeping families connected and homes running smoothly.

  • Insurance: Leverage real-time home state data and predictive analytics to proactively prevent damage, reduce risk, and lower claim costs.

  • Energy Management: Build advanced tracking algorithms and cost-saving utility dashboards.

  • With many more use cases and verticals.

New Tools:

  • Upgraded Developer Experience: We will deliver a new Developer Center experience and refreshed documentation for API users to make the API as easy to use and implement as possible.

  • The API Usage Dashboard: In the new Developer Center, we will be launching a new API Dashboard. This dashboard will allow partners and individual developers to track API call volume with flexible time-series data. The dashboard will give you current usage and data points to optimize your code and determine which pricing tier fits your needs.

These updates will make onboarding faster and API management more intuitive.

Next Steps & Timeline: We are targeting availability for the new commercial tiers and personal plan offering in October 2026 – stay tuned for additional details.

Please note: Your current API usage will not be interrupted today. We are announcing this now to give our API users ample time to prepare for the transition. Free access will remain available through Q3. We will not begin applying the new usage limits or phasing out free access until October 2026.

  • For Current Commercial Partners: Please reach out to us at partners@smartthings.com to ensure a seamless transition.

  • For Current Personal Users: We will share more information detailing the full timeline, transition guidelines, and paid plan.

  • New to the SmartThings API? Are you evaluating SmartThings as the backend for your business? We are currently onboarding new partners to discuss SmartThings API capabilities, pricing, and scalability.

Thank you for building with SmartThings. Our investment in our API and transition to a paid model are efforts to provide an incredible service that will continue to support your needs.

— The Samsung SmartThings Team

2

Reading the title I was expecting the API getting local features so the SmartThings app would be able to work offline in case of Internet or server outages. Instead, it seems to double down on the cloud.

If I understand correctly, does this mean small developers that create, for instance, smartwatch apps for users to control SmartThings, will have to pay a monthly fee now? Or that’s for cloud device integrations?

3

Sounds rather like that.

What about API access to use the Rules API?

What about API access to develop Edge drivers and other integrations?

What about the CLI and AWA which are pitched as development tools?

Not a lot of notice to plan and implement an implement an exit strategy.

4

And the grandfathered Personal Access Tokens? Will just calling something a couple times a day from a Macrodroid macro be a paid feature?

5

And what about 3rd party tools and integrations that rely on the API such as Sharptools, ConstantGraph, etc?

6

Well… I guess I misunderstood the question here:

I thought it was about the technical aspects of the API.

7

Curious how this impacts the Home Assistant integration if at all? I no longer have a SmartThings hub, but still buy Samsung and use the app to push my appliance data to Home Assistant.

8

This seems directly affect home assistant and other integrations

9

I think someone answered the survey asking for the API to become a paid service :melting_face:

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(post deleted by author)

11

I hate to be cynical,but this sounds like a jam tomorrow promise. From reading the above, it doesn’t sound like an api enhancement but infrastructure changes and charging tiers, with a hint of jam tomorrow :thinking:

12

Sounds like the biggest API change/enhancement is that it now can return HTTP 402: Payment Required.