SEODesktop

Add Email & API Key

SEODesktop needs two credentials from your DataForSEO account:

  • Login email — the email address you registered with
  • API key (sometimes called API password) — a 32-character key shown on your DataForSEO dashboard

Together these are sent as HTTP Basic Auth to DataForSEO. They're stored in your OS keychain (Windows Credential Manager or macOS Keychain) and never written to a plain config file.

Steps

  1. Open Settings → Account in SEODesktop.
  2. Paste your DataForSEO email into the first field.
  3. Paste your API key into the second field.
  4. Click Test connection. A successful test returns your remaining credit and confirms the key is valid.
  5. Click Save.

That's it — every endpoint in the app is now unlocked.

Don't have a DataForSEO account yet?

See Get Your Credentials for a step-by-step walkthrough of signing up, finding your key, and topping up credit.

Changing or rotating the key

DataForSEO lets you regenerate your API key at any time. When you do:

  1. Generate a new key on the DataForSEO dashboard (the old one is immediately invalidated).
  2. Open Settings → Account in SEODesktop.
  3. Paste the new key over the old one and click Save.

Any in-flight batch operations using the old key will fail and can be resumed once the new key is saved.

Security notes

  • Keys are stored only in the OS keychain. They're never logged, never sent to us, never stored in plain text on disk.
  • The app makes direct HTTPS calls to api.dataforseo.com — there is no middle-tier server.
  • If you uninstall SEODesktop, the keychain entries remain. Delete them manually via Credential Manager / Keychain Access if you want them gone.