How to create a read-only Bybit API key

Open Bybit API Management ↗

We checked these steps against Bybit's own documentation on 25 September 2026. Bybit can rename a button at any time. If a label differs, look for the same permission.

Before you start

• Use a computer: Bybit only lets you create keys on its website, not in the app.
• Create the key on the Bybit site where you log in (bybit.com, Bybit UAE and so on), in your live account, not in “Demo Trading”.
• Have your email and Google Authenticator app ready for Bybit's confirmation codes.

Permissions

Turn on only:

• Read-Only
• Unified Trading (every box under it)
• Account Transfer

Keep these off:

• Read-Write
• Withdrawal
• Subaccount Transfer
• Convert · Exchange History
• Assets (the top box of the Assets table)
• No IP restriction

Steps

Sovereign connects to Bybit from one fixed IP address. The connection form in Sovereign shows it next to these steps, with a copy button.

1. Log in on your Bybit site and open “API Management” (on bybit.com, the button above takes you there).
2. Click “Create New Key”, then choose “System-generated API Keys”.
3. In “Name for the API key”, type Sovereign. Keep “API Key Usage” on “API Transaction”.
4. Under “API Key Permissions”, select “Read-Only”.
5. Select “Only IPs with permissions granted are allowed to access the OpenAPI” and paste Sovereign's IP address into its box.
6. In the “Trade” table, tick “Unified Trading”, then check that every box under it is ticked too.
7. In the “Assets” table, tick “Account Transfer” in the “Wallet” row. Leave every box not named in these steps unticked.
8. Click “Submit” and pass Bybit's security check with the emailed code and your authenticator code.
9. In the “Key successfully added” window, copy the “API Key” and the “API Secret”. The secret is shown only once.
10. Paste them into the API KEY and API SECRET fields in Sovereign, then press “Connect & Sync”.

Where each value goes in Sovereign:

• API Key → API KEY
• API Secret → API SECRET

Does a Bybit API key expire?

• With an IP restriction: Never expires — Bybit calls IP-bound keys “permanently valid”.
• Without an IP restriction: Expires after 90 days.

Changing your Bybit login password can still end a key; create a new one after a password change.

“Unified Trading” and “Account Transfer” read like trading and transfer rights. They are not: “Read-Only” in step 4 removes every write right from the key, so each box only widens what it can READ. Bybit files the wallet-balance read Sovereign needs behind “Account Transfer” in the “Wallet” row, and the unified account's balances and positions behind “Unified Trading”. The key cannot place an order or move a coin either way. · One key covers one Bybit account; for a sub-account, create a key inside that sub-account and add it as its own connection. Earn, trading bot, copy trading and Launchpool balances sync for bybit.com accounts; Bybit does not offer them to keys of its regional sites (UAE, EEA, Turkey and others).

If something goes wrong

• If Bybit won't let you create a key: new accounts may have to wait 48 hours after sign-up, and Bybit EU offers API keys only to broker partners.
• If you forgot the IP: on “API Management”, click the pencil icon in the key's “IP Address Added” column and add it; the key and secret stay the same.
• If you lose the API Secret: delete the key on Bybit and create a new one.
• If you change your Bybit login password: the key can stop working, so create a new key and press Reconnect.

Sources

• www.bybit.com/en/help-center/article/How-to-create-your-API-key
• bybit-exchange.github.io/docs/faq
• bybit-exchange.github.io/docs/v5/guide
• bybit-exchange.github.io/docs/v5/user/apikey-info