---
title: Sending Digital Checks using the API | PostGrid
description: How to create digital-only checks via the PostGrid API, including watermarked previews and retrieving deposit-ready PDFs for electronic delivery.
---

Digital Checks allow you to create digital copies of checks that can be sent electronically (for example, through e-mail) or printed by yourself. The feature needs to be enabled for your organization. To request it, please contact <support@postgrid.com>

The Digital Check uses the same standard template as our postal cheques. The Digital Checks created through our API will not be sent out. They will instead be created with a `cancelled` status and a cancellation reason of `digital_only`.

Our full API documentation to create an Digital Checks can be viewed [here](https://docs.postgrid.com/#d59f5d1d-f739-4265-b894-993ab903b466).

To create a Digital Check, you can send a `POST` request to `/cheques`, and the field `digitalOnly` must be specified in the request body with a `watermark`string that will overlay the preview PDF of the Digital Check.

```
"digitalOnly": {"watermark": "Test"}
```

This link to the preview PDF is available in the `url`field of the `cheque`object, similar to regular cheques in the API. This preview does not contain all the information needed to deposit a check. For example, the full account number is not visible.

**A sample of the preview PDF of a`digitalOnly` check.**

![Preview PDF of a digital-only check with a watermark overlaid across the cheque, obscuring the full account number](/_astro/01-image.B3ZAC-In_ZEBXjy.webp)

To get the deposit-ready check, you must call the `GET` endpoint `/cheques/:id/with_deposit_ready_pdf` with the `id` of the digital-only cheque you want to retrieve. This endpoint cannot be used to retrieve regular/postal cheques. This endpoint can only be called by users with `admin` permissions, which can be granted by the administrator of your account.

This returns the `cheque` object with an additional field `depositReadyPDFURL`, which is a link to the non-watermarked, deposit-ready version of the Digital Check.

**A sample of the deposit-ready PDF of a`digitalOnly` check.**

![Deposit-ready PDF of a digital-only check showing the full check details without a watermark, suitable for electronic delivery](/_astro/02-image.BZSXgYFP_ZjL97q.webp)

NOTE: When a Test API key is used, the deposit-ready PDF will be the same as the preview PDF.