Zoho Billing Python API Docs | dltHub

Zoho Billing is a REST API for managing subscriptions, invoices, customers, hosted payment pages and other billing resources. The REST API base URL is https://www.zohoapis.com/billing/v1 and OAuth2 access token (Zoho‑oauthtoken) plus organization header required..

dlt is an open-source Python library that handles authentication, pagination, and schema evolution automatically. dlthub provides AI context files that enable code assistants to generate production-ready pipelines. Install with uv pip install "dlt[workspace]" and start loading Zoho Billing data in under 10 minutes.

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What data can I load from Zoho Billing?

Here are some of the endpoints you can load from Zoho Billing:

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How do I authenticate with the Zoho Billing API?

Zoho Billing uses OAuth 2.0. Requests must include an Authorization header formatted as 'Authorization: Zoho-oauthtoken <access_token>' and the organization ID header 'X-com-zoho-subscriptions-organizationid: <organization_id>'. Access tokens expire; refresh tokens are used to obtain new access tokens.

1. Get your credentials

1. Visit https://api-console.zoho.com and register a new client (Server‑based or Self Client) to obtain a Client ID and Client Secret.
2. Direct the user to the OAuth authorize URL (accounts domain per region) to obtain an authorization code.
3. Exchange the code at https://accounts.zoho.com/oauth/v2/token (or the region‑specific accounts domain) for an access_token and refresh_token.
4. Store the access_token, refresh_token, client_id, client_secret and your organization ID for use in API calls.
5. When the access_token expires, use the refresh_token at the token endpoint to obtain a new access_token.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

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[sources.zoho_billing_source]
client_id = "your_client_id"
client_secret = "your_client_secret"
refresh_token = "your_refresh_token"
access_token = "your_access_token"
organization_id = "your_organization_id"

dlt reads this automatically at runtime — never hardcode tokens in your pipeline script. For production environments, see setting up credentials with dlt for environment variable and vault-based options.

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How do I set up and run the pipeline?

Set up a virtual environment and install dlt:

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uv venv && source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install "dlt[workspace]"

1. Install the dlt AI Workbench:

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dlt ai init --agent <your-agent> # <agent>: claude | cursor | codex

This installs project rules, a secrets management skill, appropriate ignore files, and configures the dlt MCP server for your agent. Learn more →

2. Install the rest-api-pipeline toolkit:

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dlt ai toolkit rest-api-pipeline install

This loads the skills and context about dlt the agent uses to build the pipeline iteratively, efficiently, and safely. The agent uses MCP tools to inspect credentials — it never needs to read your secrets.toml directly. Learn more →

3. Start LLM-assisted coding:

Use /find-source to load data from the Zoho Billing API into DuckDB.

The rest-api-pipeline toolkit takes over from here — it reads relevant API documentation, presents you with options for which endpoints to load, and follows a structured workflow to scaffold, debug, and validate the pipeline step by step.

4. Run the pipeline:

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python zoho_billing_pipeline.py

If everything is configured correctly, you'll see output like this:

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Pipeline zoho_billing_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds
1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset zoho_billing_data
The duckdb destination used duckdb:/zoho_billing.duckdb location to store data
Load package 1749667187.541553 is LOADED and contains no failed jobs

Inspect your pipeline and data:

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dlt pipeline zoho_billing_pipeline show

This opens the Pipeline Dashboard where you can verify pipeline state, load metrics, schema (tables, columns, types), and query the loaded data directly.

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Python pipeline example

This example loads customers and invoices from the Zoho Billing API into DuckDB. It mirrors the endpoint and data selector configuration from the table above:

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import dlt
from dlt.sources.rest_api import RESTAPIConfig, rest_api_resources

@dlt.source
def zoho_billing_source(access_token=dlt.secrets.value):
    config: RESTAPIConfig = {
        "client": {
            "base_url": "https://www.zohoapis.com/billing/v1",
            "auth": {
                "type": "bearer",
                "token": access_token,
            },
        },
        "resources": [
            {"name": "customers", "endpoint": {"path": "customers", "data_selector": "customers"}},
            {"name": "invoices", "endpoint": {"path": "invoices", "data_selector": "invoices"}}
        ],
    }
    yield from rest_api_resources(config)


def get_data() -> None:
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name="zoho_billing_pipeline",
        destination="duckdb",
        dataset_name="zoho_billing_data",
    )
    load_info = pipeline.run(zoho_billing_source())
    print(load_info)

To add more endpoints, append entries from the resource table to the "resources" list using the same name, path, and data_selector pattern.

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How do I query the loaded data?

Once the pipeline runs, dlt creates one table per resource. You can query with Python or SQL.

Python (pandas DataFrame):

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import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("zoho_billing_pipeline").dataset()
sessions_df = data.customers.df()
print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

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SELECT * FROM zoho_billing_data.customers LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

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import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("zoho_billing_pipeline").dataset()
data.customers.df().head()

See how to explore your data in marimo Notebooks and how to query your data in Python with dataset.

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What destinations can I load Zoho Billing data to?

dlt supports loading into any of these destinations — only the destination parameter changes:

Change the destination in dlt.pipeline(destination="snowflake") and add credentials in .dlt/secrets.toml. See the full destinations list.

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Troubleshooting

Authentication failures

Ensure the Authorization header is set as Authorization: Zoho-oauthtoken <access_token> and include X-com-zoho-subscriptions-organizationid. Invalid or expired tokens return standard OAuth error responses; refresh the token using the refresh_token at the token endpoint.

Rate limits and throttling

Zoho Billing enforces per‑organization limits: 100 requests per minute and daily limits depending on the plan (Standard 1000/day, Premium 5000/day). Exceeding limits returns HTTP 429 with a payload such as { "code" : 45 , "message" : "The API call for this organization has exceeded the maximum call rate limit..." } or code 1070 for concurrent request caps.

Pagination

List endpoints support pagination parameters (page, per_page or offset/limit as documented). Responses return arrays under the resource‑specific data selector keys (e.g., customers, invoices). Use the pagination parameters to iterate through large result sets.

Ensure that the API key is valid to avoid 401 Unauthorized errors. Also, verify endpoint paths and parameters to avoid 404 Not Found errors.

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Next steps

Continue your data engineering journey with the other toolkits of the dltHub AI Workbench:

• data-exploration — Build custom notebooks, charts, and dashboards for deeper analysis with marimo notebooks.
• dlthub-runtime — Deploy, schedule, and monitor your pipeline in production.

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dlt ai toolkit data-exploration install
dlt ai toolkit dlthub-runtime install

• How to deploy a pipeline
• How to explore your data in marimo Notebooks
• How to query your data in Python with dataset
• Join the dlt community on Slack