Plaid environments explained: Sandbox vs Production, and why Development is gone

Updated 2026-07-26

Plaid has two environments today: Sandbox, which is free and runs on mock data, and Production, which connects real accounts and requires approval. The separate Development environment was decommissioned in June 2024, so any guide still telling you to "test in Development" is out of date.

If you learned Plaid before mid-2024, you learned three environments: Sandbox for fake data, Development for a small amount of real data, and Production for launch. That model no longer exists. Search still surfaces "sandbox vs development vs production" comparisons, but Development is not a place you can point code at anymore. Here is what replaced it and how to pick an environment now.

The environments, current state

Environment	Data	Cost	Status
Sandbox	Mock / test data	Free	Active, unlimited test Items
Development	Real data, capped live Items	Free	Decommissioned June 2024
Production	Real financial data	Paid, approval required	Active

Development is in the table because you will still see it referenced everywhere. Treat that row as history. The free "real data" job it used to do now lives inside Production as a free tier, commonly called Limited or Trial Production, which connects real accounts up to a usage cap before you move to full paid Production.

Start in Sandbox

Sandbox is where you build. It costs nothing, returns mock financial data, and places no limit on how many test Items you create, so you can wire up Link, exchange a public token for an access token, and pull balances or transactions without touching a real bank. Log in with user_good / pass_good to get a clean, successful Item. Other test usernames force specific states so you can exercise error handling and pending flows on purpose, and Sandbox supports customizable test scenarios, which let you shape the data an Item returns instead of accepting one canned fixture.

The catch is honesty about scope: Sandbox proves your code works, not that a real bank behaves the way you expect. Mock data is clean and predictable in a way production accounts are not.

Move to Production when you need real accounts

Production is the only environment that connects real financial accounts, and it is gated. You request access, Plaid reviews the application, and billing applies once you are past the free tier. The free tier (Limited or Trial Production) is the honest answer to "how do I test against a real bank without paying yet" now that Development is gone. Full Production is what you launch on.

If you are migrating off Development

Repoint anything that named a "development" host or key. There is no Development environment to route to. Real-account testing moves to the Production free tier; functional testing stays in Sandbox.
Re-link Items you created in Development. Access tokens and Items were environment-scoped, so a Development token is not a Production token. Users reconnect through Link in Production.
Update your config to two values, not three. Environments collapse to sandbox and production. Delete the third branch in your environment switch so nothing silently falls through to a dead target.

Mistakes that waste a sprint

Following a pre-2024 tutorial. Guides that walk you through "getting Development keys" send you looking for a screen that does not exist. Check the date on anything that lists three environments.
Expecting Sandbox to catch real-bank quirks. Mock data will not reproduce a specific institution's login flow, MFA, or data gaps. That surfaces only against real accounts.
Leaving Production access as a last-minute task. Production requires approval, so the review is a dependency, not a formality. Start it before you think you need it.

FAQ

Is the Plaid Sandbox free?

Yes. Sandbox is free, runs on mock financial data, and lets you create unlimited test Items. It is the default place to build and test a Plaid integration before you ask for Production access.

What happened to the Plaid Development environment?

Plaid decommissioned the separate Development environment in June 2024. It used to give free access to real financial data for a capped number of live Items. That capability moved into Production as a free tier, usually called Limited or Trial Production, so you no longer point code at a "development" host.

How do I test Plaid with real financial data for free now?

Use the free tier of Production (Limited or Trial Production) rather than the old Development environment. It connects real accounts with real credentials up to a usage cap. Sandbox stays on mock data and is for functional testing, not real-account testing.

What are the Plaid Sandbox test credentials?

The standard Sandbox login is username user_good and password pass_good, which returns a successful Item. Other test usernames force specific states such as errors or pending flows, and Sandbox also supports customizable test scenarios so you can shape the data an Item returns.

Sources: Plaid docs: Sandbox ↗

Development's decommissioning date (June 2024) and the free/mock-data behavior of Sandbox are per Plaid's documentation as of 2026-07-26. The exact naming and quota of the free Production tier (Limited / Trial Production) and the historical live-Item cap on Development can change; confirm against your Plaid dashboard.