> For clean Markdown of any page, append .md to the page URL.
> For a complete documentation index, see https://docs.paradex.trade/api/general-information/authentication/llms.txt.
> For AI client integration (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.), connect to the MCP server at https://docs.paradex.trade/_mcp/server.

# Authentication

Your software will have to authenticate itself when:

1. You onboard your wallet using automatic onboarding code
2. You generate JWT (see below) for a private Rest API call or subscription to a private WebSocket
3. You send order to Paradex

## What is JWT

Paradex uses [JSON Web Tokens (JWTs)](https://jwt.io/introduction) to authenticate users.

JWTs are a secure way to transmit information between parties as they are signed by the sender, which allows the recipient to verify the authenticity of the message.

> **For security reasons JWTs used in Paradex's authentication mechanism expire every 5 minutes.** **It is not possible to extend the expiration.**

This means that users will need to **re-authenticate** regularly in order to always have a fresh JWT readily available.

Paradex recommends refreshing JWT well before expiry (e.g., after 3 minutes) to allow multiple retry attempts while still having a valid JWT.

This will help you to avoid interruptions in making REST API calls.

When using **WebSocket** connections, after the initial authentication, users do not need to re-authenticate again for the lifetime of the connection.

[See more regarding Paradex JWT mechanism](/api/prod/auth/get-jwt).

## Benefits of using JWT

The benefits of using JWT for authentication:

* **Security**: JWTs are signed by the issuer, which allows the recipient to verify the authenticity of the message.
* **Efficiency**: JWTs are small and lightweight, which makes them efficient to transmit over the network.