Create Quote Overview

19 min

Create Quote Overview

The Nue CPQ Quote API provides REST endpoints for programmatically creating fully-priced quotes with the same pricing fidelity as the Nue UI. Use the CPQ REST API when you need to build quotes outside of the Nue application -- for example, from a custom storefront, a partner portal, an AI agent, or any backend integration that requires real-time pricing.

If you are working with post-quote lifecycle operations such as order activation, subscription management, or asset tracking, use the Lifecycle Manager API instead. The CPQ REST API is focused on quote creation and pricing.

Endpoints

Endpoint	Method	Description
/cpq/quotes	POST	Create and persist a quote (commit mode)
/cpq/quotes:preview	POST	Preview a quote without persisting (dry-run mode)
/cpq/quotes/{quoteId}	GET	Retrieve a quote's JSON representation

How It Works

When you submit a Create Quote request, the pricing engine performs the following steps:

Product Resolution -- Finds products by SKU or name, resolves the correct Price Book Entry based on UOM, currency, and pricing attributes

Bundle Expansion -- Automatically includes bundled items, auto-populates required add-ons, resolves dynamic product options

Pricing Engine Execution -- Calculates the full pricing formula chain: ListPrice x Quantity x Term = ListTotal, then applies system discounts and discretionary discounts to arrive at the final total price

Discount Propagation -- Applies header-level discounts to all undiscounted lines, propagates parent-level discounts to children, respects explicit overrides

Price Tag Evaluation -- Evaluates tiered, volume, and ramp price/discount tags; applies auto-attached tags from product configuration

Validation -- Enforces business rules and returns structured error messages or warnings

Key Concepts

Preview vs Commit

The CPQ API supports two modes with identical request bodies:

Mode	Endpoint	Persists to Database	quote.id in Response
Preview (dry-run)	POST /cpq/quotes:preview	No	null
Commit	POST /cpq/quotes	Yes	Returns a UUID

Preview mode runs the full pricing engine but writes nothing to the database. Use it for pricing previews, what-if scenarios, and validation. Commit mode runs the same engine and persists the result. See Preview vs Commit for detailed examples.

Product Identification

Products are identified by SKU and Unit of Measure (UOM). The SKU resolves the product, and the UOM resolves the specific Price Book Entry that determines the list price.

SKU + UOM (recommended): { "productSku": "NUE_PLATFORM", "uom": "User/Month" }

Name + UOM: { "productName": "Nue Platform", "uom": "User/Month" }

Price Book Entry ID: { "priceBookEntryId": "PBE-001" }

When both productSku and productName are provided, the SKU is used for product resolution.

Pricing Formula

The pricing engine applies the following formula for recurring products:

ListTotal = ListPrice x Quantity x Term
SubTotal  = ListTotal - SystemDiscount
Total     = SubTotal  - DiscretionaryDiscount

One-time products use ListTotal = ListPrice x Quantity (no term multiplier).

Prerequisites

Before creating quotes, ensure you have:

A valid Nue API key with quote creation permissions

An Opportunity ID to associate with the quote

Products published to your Price Book with Price Book Entries

Knowledge of product SKUs and their Units of Measure (UOM)

Authentication

All CPQ operations require authentication using your Nue API key in the nue-api-key header:

const myHeaders = new Headers();
myHeaders.append("nue-api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY_HERE");
myHeaders.append("Content-Type", "application/json");

Minimal Example -- Preview a Quote

curl -X POST 'https://api.nue.io/cpq/quotes:preview' \
  -H 'nue-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY_HERE' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "opportunityId": "006xx000001abc123",
    "name": "Q1 2026 Platform License",
    "subscriptionStartDate": "2026-01-01",
    "subscriptionEndDate": "2027-01-01",
    "subscriptionTermDimension": "Month",
    "subscriptionTerm": 12,
    "products": [
      { "productSku": "NUE_PLATFORM", "uom": "User/Month", "quantity": 10 }
    ]
  }'

const myHeaders = new Headers();
myHeaders.append("nue-api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY_HERE");
myHeaders.append("Content-Type", "application/json");

const quoteData = {
  opportunityId: "006xx000001abc123",
  name: "Q1 2026 Platform License",
  subscriptionStartDate: "2026-01-01",
  subscriptionEndDate: "2027-01-01",
  subscriptionTermDimension: "Month",
  subscriptionTerm: 12,
  products: [
    { productSku: "NUE_PLATFORM", uom: "User/Month", quantity: 10 }
  ]
};

fetch('https://api.nue.io/cpq/quotes:preview', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: myHeaders,
  body: JSON.stringify(quoteData)
})
.then(response => response.json())
.then(result => {
  console.log('Quote preview:', result);
  console.log(`Total Amount: $${result.quote.totalAmount}`);
  console.log(`Line items: ${result.quoteLineItems.length}`);
  // the quote object has no id in preview mode
})
.catch(error => console.log('Error:', error));

Minimal Example -- Commit a Quote

To persist the quote, use the /cpq/quotes endpoint (without :preview). The request body is identical.

curl -X POST 'https://api.nue.io/cpq/quotes' \
  -H 'nue-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY_HERE' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "opportunityId": "006xx000001abc123",
    "name": "Q1 2026 Platform License",
    "subscriptionStartDate": "2026-01-01",
    "subscriptionEndDate": "2027-01-01",
    "subscriptionTermDimension": "Month",
    "subscriptionTerm": 12,
    "products": [
      { "productSku": "NUE_PLATFORM", "uom": "User/Month", "quantity": 10 }
    ]
  }'

fetch('https://api.nue.io/cpq/quotes', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: myHeaders,
  body: JSON.stringify(quoteData)
})
.then(response => response.json())
.then(result => {
  console.log(`Quote ID: ${result.quote.id}`);  // present -- quote is persisted
  console.log(`Total Amount: $${result.quote.totalAmount}`);
})
.catch(error => console.log('Error:', error));

Request Structure

The Create Quote request body has three main sections:

Quote Header Fields

Field	Type	Required	Description
opportunityId	string	Yes	The Opportunity ID to associate with the quote
name	string	Yes	The quote name
subscriptionStartDate	date	Yes	Start date (YYYY-MM-DD)
subscriptionEndDate	date	No	End date; calculated from term if not provided
subscriptionTerm	number	Yes	Term length (e.g., 12 for 12 months)
subscriptionTermDimension	string	No	"Month" (default) or "Year"
priceBookId	string	No	Price Book ID; uses system default if omitted
discount	number	No	Header-level discount percentage (0-100)
discountAmount	number	No	Header-level discount as fixed amount
billingPeriod	string	No	"Monthly", "Quarterly", "Semi-Annually", "Annually"
billingTiming	string	No	"In Advance" or "In Arrears"
autoRenew	boolean	No	Auto-renew setting for all products
currencyIsoCode	string	No	ISO currency code for multi-currency orgs
priceTags	array	No	Quote-level price/discount tags

Product Input Fields

Field	Type	Required	Description
productSku	string	Yes*	Product SKU (either SKU or name required)
productName	string	Yes*	Product name (alternative to SKU)
uom	string	Conditional	Unit of Measure; required if priceBookEntryId is not provided
quantity	number	No	Product quantity (defaults vary by product)
startDate	date	No	Product start date; defaults to quote start date
endDate	date	No	Product end date
subscriptionTerm	number	No	Per-product term override
discount	number	No	Line-level discount percentage (0-100)
discountAmount	number	No	Line-level discount amount
billingPeriod	string	No	Per-product billing period override
billingTiming	string	No	Per-product billing timing override
autoRenew	boolean	No	Per-product auto-renew override
evergreen	boolean	No	Whether the product is evergreen
renewalTerm	number	No	Renewal term override
priceTags	array	No	Line-level price/discount tags
addOns	array	No	Add-on products for bundles (recursive ProductInput)
customPricingAttributes	array	No	Custom attributes for multi-attribute PBE resolution
customFields	object	No	Custom field values applied to the line item, keyed by Salesforce API name (for example a Line Attribute's mapped field)
rampValues	array	No	Per-ramp Line Attribute values for a ramped line. Each entry targets one ramp line by rampLineIndex and sets custom fields on that ramp line. See the Per-ramp Line Attribute values section below

Price Tag Input

Field	Type	Required	Description
code	string	One of code/id	The price tag code
id	string	One of code/id	The price tag ID

Per-ramp Line Attribute values

On a ramped (multi-year) line, a custom field mapped as a Line Attribute can carry a different value for each ramp line. Pass these per-ramp values with the rampValues array on the product. Omit it and every ramp line inherits the value on the line, then the Pricebook Entry default.

Field	Type	Required	Description
rampLineIndex	number	Yes	The ramp line to target, 1-based in schedule order (the first ramp line is 1)
startDate	date	No	The ramp line's start date, accepted as a readable alias for rampLineIndex. Ramp line dates are derived by the pricing engine, so this is not the addressing key; when both are given they must agree
fieldValues	object	Yes	Field API name to value, applied to that ramp line only (for example { "Overage_Rate__c": 3.00 })

Each ramp line resolves its value from the first available of: an explicit rampValues entry, the value set on the line, the product's Pricebook Entry default, then empty. A rampLineIndex that is out of range, not a positive integer, or duplicated across entries is rejected with INVALID_RAMP_LINE.

Example -- different overage rate each year

{
  "opportunityId": "006xx000001abc123",
  "name": "3-Year Usage Ramp",
  "subscriptionStartDate": "2026-01-01",
  "subscriptionTermDimension": "Year",
  "subscriptionTerm": 3,
  "products": [
    {
      "productSku": "API_USAGE",
      "uom": "Call/Month",
      "quantity": 100,
      "priceTags": [ { "code": "3-YEAR-RAMP" } ],
      "rampValues": [
        { "rampLineIndex": 1, "fieldValues": { "Overage_Rate__c": 3.00 } },
        { "rampLineIndex": 2, "fieldValues": { "Overage_Rate__c": 3.50 } },
        { "rampLineIndex": 3, "fieldValues": { "Overage_Rate__c": 4.00 } }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Response Structure

The quote and its line items are returned at the top level of the response body:

{
  "quote": { ... },
  "quoteLineItems": [ ... ]
}

quote -- The quote header object with all calculated pricing fields

quoteLineItems -- Array of root line items; bundle children are nested in childrenLineItems on their parent line, not flattened into this array

In preview mode the quote object has no id, and each line item carries a temporary id of the form temp_<uuid>. In commit mode quote.id holds the persisted quote ID and line items carry their real IDs.

On failure, the response is an HTTP error status with this body:

{
  "status": 400,
  "error": "Failed to create quote",
  "message": "The field 'accountId' is required.",
  "errorDetails": [
    {
      "errorCode": "QUOTE_ACCOUNTID_REQUIRED",
      "message": "The field 'accountId' is required."
    }
  ]
}

Here status is the numeric HTTP status and the per-error list is errorDetails. Basic request validation failures, such as a missing name or priceBookId, return "error": "Bad Request" with no errorDetails array.

Guide Articles

Article	Description
Preview vs Commit	Understand the difference between dry-run and commit modes
Standalone Products	Create quotes with simple standalone products
Bundles	Work with bundle products and add-ons
Discounts	Apply header, parent, and line-level discounts
Quantity Tier Attributes	Configure quantity-based pricing tiers