Delivery ETA

The delivery ETA tool estimates when a payment between two of an entity’s accounts would be delivered, without creating a payment. Use it to show a business expected delivery dates before they choose a delivery preference. The response has one estimate per delivery option valid for the receiving account’s rail, for example standard-ach, same-day-ach, and rtp for ACH.

POST /tools/delivery-eta

Authentication: API key (Authorization: Bearer <api-key>). Required header: Melio-Entity-Id - the entity that owns the accounts, either an entity id (ent_<uuid>) or me for the partner’s sole entity.

amount is in minor units (cents). Dates are YYYY-MM-DD; see Timestamps.

Request

Field	Type	Required	Description
`originatingAccountId`	string	Yes	Internal originating account id (`acct_<id>`), the debit account.
`receivingAccountId`	string	Yes	External receiving account id (`acct_<id>`), the credit account.
`amount`	integer	Yes	The prospective payment amount, in minor units (cents).
`deductionDate`	string (`date`)	No	The debit/schedule date the estimate is based on. Defaults to the current date when omitted.
`currency`	string	No	Defaults to `USD`.

Example request

curl -X POST https://api.example.com/v2/tools/delivery-eta \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <api-key>" \
  -H "Melio-Entity-Id: me" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "originatingAccountId": "acct_3f2504e0-4f89-41d3-9a0c-0305e82c3301",
    "receivingAccountId": "acct_9b1deb4d-3b7d-4bad-9bdd-2b0d7b3dcb6d",
    "amount": 125000,
    "deductionDate": "2026-07-10"
  }'

Response

The request is echoed back (including the deductionDate the estimates are based on), alongside an estimates array with one entry per delivery preference valid for the receiving rail.

{
  "originatingAccountId": "acct_3f2504e0-4f89-41d3-9a0c-0305e82c3301",
  "receivingAccountId": "acct_9b1deb4d-3b7d-4bad-9bdd-2b0d7b3dcb6d",
  "amount": 125000,
  "currency": "USD",
  "deductionDate": "2026-07-10",
  "estimates": [
    { "deliveryPreference": "standard-ach", "deliveryDate": "2026-07-14" },
    { "deliveryPreference": "same-day-ach", "deliveryDate": "2026-07-10" },
    { "deliveryPreference": "rtp", "deliveryDate": "2026-07-10" }
  ]
}

Field	Description
`deductionDate`	The debit/schedule date the estimates were based on.
`estimates[].deliveryPreference`	A delivery preference valid for the receiving rail.
`estimates[].deliveryDate`	The estimated delivery date (`YYYY-MM-DD`). Absent when the estimation engine cannot produce a date for that preference.

The array is empty when the receiving rail has no valid delivery preferences.

deliveryDate is an estimate based on the deductionDate, not a guarantee. Estimates shift with cutoff times, weekends, and bank holidays, so pass the actual date you intend to debit as deductionDate for the most accurate result.

Errors

Status	When
`400`	Validation error or an invalid account type.
`404`	The entity or an account was not found.

See Errors for the response shape.

Eligibility - which fast delivery options a payment qualifies for.
Fee Calculator - the cost of each delivery preference.

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