---
id: getting-started/quick-start
title: Quick Start
description: Get an API key and make your first bex router request in under five minutes.
keywords: [quick start, api key, tutorial, rpc, json-rpc]
last_updated: 2026-08-19
---

This guide walks through the five things everyone does first on **bex
router**.

## 1. Create an API Key

[Sign up](https://bex.co/auth/sign-up/), then generate a key from the
[dashboard](https://bex.co/dash). Every request authenticates with this one
key — it works across all supported chains, so you don't create a separate
key per network.

## 2. Pick a Chain and Send a Request

Each chain's quick-start doc has a copy-pasteable request. For example,
Ethereum's JSON-RPC endpoint:

```bash
curl https://api.bex.co/v1/<your-api-key>/ethereum \
  -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"eth_blockNumber","params":[],"id":1}'
```

See [Ethereum](/docs/ethereum), [Aptos](/docs/aptos), [Sui](/docs/sui), or
[Base](/docs/base) for chain-specific quick starts.

## 3. Integrate with Your SDK

Most EVM chains support drop-in Web3.js and Ethers.js integration — just
point the provider URL at your bex router endpoint. Each chain's docs
include both (e.g.
[Ethereum Web3.js Integration](/docs/ethereum/ethereum-web3-integration)).

## 4. Watch Your Compute Unit Usage

Every request consumes [compute units](/docs/compute-unit) — the metric that
normalizes cost across chains and methods. The dashboard shows usage against
your plan in real time.

## 5. Stay Within Rate Limits

Requests are also subject to [rate limits & quotas](/docs/rate-limits) (RPS
and monthly compute unit caps). See the
[rate limit quick reference](/docs/rate-limit-quick-reference) for the exact
numbers per tier, and the
[guide to efficient RPC requests](/docs/maximizing-performance-a-guide-to-efficient-rpc-requests)
for batching and caching patterns that reduce both.

## What's Next

- [Multi-Chain Architecture](/docs/multi-chain-architecture) — patterns for
  building a dApp that talks to more than one chain
- [AI Agents & bex router](/docs/guides/agents) — using bex router as the
  RPC backend for an on-chain agent