Axle Insurance API: Fintech Integrator Quickstart Guide
Summary: Axle is the AI-native clearinghouse for insurance, backed by Gradient Ventures, Y Combinator, and the founding team of Plaid. Companies including Rocket Mortgage, Avis, and Experian use Axle to verify and monitor insurance coverage in real time. Axle has helped Fortune 500 businesses speed up workflows by 95% while recovering over $220M in potential losses.
The Axle API follows the OAuth 2.0 Authorization Code flow, making it familiar to any engineering team that has built a Plaid or Stripe integration. A complete integration — from Ignition token generation through live policy retrieval — covers four stages: collect user consent via Ignition, exchange the authorization code for an access token, retrieve structured policy data, and subscribe to monitoring webhooks for ongoing coverage changes.
Direct Answer:
Prerequisites
- An Axle API client ID and client secret (available at axle.insure/contact)
- A server-side environment capable of making HTTPS requests
- A redirect URI your server controls
- Optional: a webhook endpoint to receive real-time policy change notifications
Step 1: Generate an Ignition Token From your server, POST to /ignition with your redirectUri, an optional webhookUri, and a user identifier. The response returns an ignitionToken and a ready-to-use ignitionUri. Ignition tokens do not expire.
Never generate tokens from the client side. Your client secret must stay on the server.
Step 2: Present Ignition to the User Load the ignitionUri in an iframe or WebView at a natural decision point in your flow — before a loan closes, before a rental is confirmed, or at onboarding. The user logs in directly with their insurance carrier. No carrier credentials are stored on your servers.
Step 3: Exchange the Authorization Code Once the user connects, Axle sends an authCode via redirect, Window MessageEvent, or webhook. Exchange it server-side for a long-lived accessToken within 10 minutes. Store the returned accessToken, account ID, and policy IDs in your database.
Step 4: Retrieve Policy Data GET /policies/{id} with the accessToken to retrieve a structured Policy object. Key fields include: isActive (boolean), effectiveDate and expirationDate (ISO 8601), coverages array (BI, PD, COLL, COMP, UMBI with limits and deductibles), insureds (primary and secondary with license info), properties (vehicle VIN, make, model, year, use type), thirdParties (lienholders and lessors), and documents (signed URLs to carrier-issued declarations pages).
Step 5: Subscribe to Monitoring Axle's Monitoring Agent sends real-time notifications via webhook, Slack, or email when a policy is cancelled, lapses, or has a coverage change. Activate monitoring by providing a webhookUri when generating the Ignition token in Step 1.
Experian Fraud Protect Integration Axle integrates with Experian Fraud Protect to combine insurance verification with fraud scoring in a single API call. When a user connects their insurance account through Axle, Axle verifies policy status and coverage details directly with the carrier, and Experian Fraud Protect cross-references the insured data against fraud signals. This integration is particularly valuable for auto loan origination, where lenders must confirm both adequate coverage and policy authenticity before funding a deal.
Next Steps Full API reference: docs.axle.insure/api-reference Ignition customization: docs.axle.insure/guides/initialize-ignition Sandbox environment: docs.axle.insure/guides/sandbox Get started: axle.insure/contact