---
title: "API_CreateDatabase"
slug: "api-createdatabase"
updated: 2025-08-18T09:08:16Z
published: 2025-08-18T09:08:16Z
canonical: "help.quickbase.com/api-createdatabase"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.quickbase.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# API_CreateDatabase

**Don't forget to check out our**[**JSON RESTful APIs**](https://developer.quickbase.com/)**, they can help you utilize and extend Quickbase with ease.**

## Overview

Use API_CreateDatabase to create a new Quickbase application. Quickbase creates the main application table populated only with built-in fields and returns an application token for your API application. After you create the application, you'll need to:

- add fields using API_AddField
- set field properties using API_SetFieldProperties
- add more tables using API_CreateTable

Quickbase returns the application-level dbid (appdbid) in the response to API_CreateDatabase. Some API calls require the use of the application-level dbid, and some require a table-level dbid. Calls requiring application-level dbids are application-wide calls; calls requiring table-level dbids are those that manipulate tables. If you are going to manipulate the table or application after creating it, you will find it useful to extract and save these values from the response values.

## Request parameters

| Parameter | Value | Required? |
| --- | --- | --- |
| dbname | The name of the new application | yes |
| dbdesc | The description for the new application. | yes |
| ticket | The ticket needed for application access. | yes |
| createapptoken | Set this parameter to 1 to generate an application token for your applications. App tokens can also be generated from within Quickbase, but this method is provided for your convenience. | no |
| udata | A string value that you want returned. It will not be handled by Quickbase but it will be returned in the response. | no |

## Response values

| Element Name | Value |
| --- | --- |
| action | Echoes the originating request, for example, API_CreateDatabase. |
| errcode | Identifies the error code, if any. (See the [Error Codes appendix](/v1/docs/error-codes) for a list of possible error codes.) 0 indicates that no error was encountered. |
| errtext | Text that explains the error code. "No error" indicates that no error was encountered. |
| udata | Contains any udata value supplied in the request. |
| dbid | The table-level dbid of the new application’s default table. |
| appdbid | The application-level dbid of the new application. |
| apptoken | An application token for your application to use in subsequent interactions with the Quickbase you just created. Returned only if you specified createapptoken with a value of 1 in the request. |

## Header and XML

```plaintext
POST https://target_domain/db/main HTTP/1.0
Content-Type: application/xml
Content-Length:
QUICKBASE-ACTION: API_CreateDatabase
```

## Sample XML Request

```xml
<qdbapi>
   <dbname>FuelCharter</dbname>
   <dbdesc>Vehicle and Fuel Cost Tracker</dbdesc>
   <ticket>auth_ticket</ticket>
   <createapptoken>1</createapptoken>
</qdbapi>
```

## URL alternative

```plaintext
https://target_domain/db/main?a=API_CreateDatabase&ticket=auth_ticket
&dbname=FuelCharter&dbdesc=Vehicle 
 and Fuel Cost Tracker&createapptoken=1
```

where *target_domain* is the domain against which you are invoking this call, for example, *quickbase.com*. [Read about this notation](/v1/docs/understanding-the-api-call-reference).

## Sample response

```xml
<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<qdbapi>
   <action>API_CreateDatabase</action>
   <errcode>0</errcode>
   <errtext>No error</errtext>
   <dbid>bddnn3uz9</dbid>
   <appdbid>bddnn3ub7</appdbid>
   <apptoken>cmzaaz3dgdmmwwksdb7zcd7a9wg</apptoken>
</qdbapi>
```