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Create an account & get funds

Create or import an account in the Polkadot app, protect the recovery phrase, and get enough devnet funds to start using Products on the Polkadot Products Devnet.

You will need the app installed — download links are in Get the app.

Building an app instead?

This page is the in-app account you use as an end user. To deploy a Product you want a CLI signing key, which is set up separately — see Set up an account (a throwaway one takes a single command).

1. Create or import the account

The Polkadot app is self-custodial: your keys are generated and stored on your own device. The app's backend never holds your keys; every signature happens locally after you approve it.

  1. Open the app and choose to create a new account if you are starting fresh, or import an existing account if you already hold a recovery phrase.
  2. If you create a new account, the app generates a fresh key pair on the device.
  3. Follow the prompts to back up your recovery phrase. Store it somewhere you can recover later, but never somewhere another person or website can read it.

Your recovery phrase is the account

Anyone who holds your recovery phrase controls the account, and losing it means losing access. Write it down, store it offline, and never paste it into a website, a chat, or a support request. The Polkadot app will never ask you to share it.

Log in on the desktop app

The desktop (and web) app holds no keys of its own — it is a companion that pairs with your phone, and signing stays on the phone. So set the account up on mobile first:

  1. Create or import your account in the mobile app (above).
  2. Open the desktop app and scan the QR code it shows to pair the two devices.
  3. If macOS asks for network options, choose dev only.

See the client architecture for why signing happens on the phone.

2. Get devnet funds

Nothing funds a brand-new account automatically. You need two different things, from two different places:

What Why Where
CASH The balance you spend inside the app The in-app "+" top-up — see Get & use CASH
Native tokens (PAS) Transaction fees and keeping the account alive The faucet — below

The faucet does not give you CASH, and the in-app top-up does not give you fees. A new account generally wants both.

Fund the account from the faucet

Devnet funds come from the Polkadot faucet. It serves several networks, so the two choices that matter are Paseo and the right parachain — these links pre-select both:

You need fees for Use
Contracts, .dot names, publishing Paseo Asset Hub (1000)
Sending CASH, usernames, personhood Paseo People (1004)

Paste your SS58 address (the one the app shows on its receive screen, or dotns account address for CLI work) — not an EVM 0x… address. The faucet pays the native token, PAS.

Do not pick an Asset Hub Next or People Next chain

The faucet also lists Asset Hub Next (1500) and People Next (1502). Those belong to a different network. Funds sent there will not appear on this Devnet, and the balance you are waiting for will never arrive.

A request pays 5,000 PAS and normally lands within a block or two — a few seconds.

Check the funds arrived

The app shows the balance once it refreshes. To confirm it independently, open Polkadot-JS Apps against the chain you funded — Asset Hub or People — select system → account, paste your SS58 address, and read data.free.

If it is still zero a minute later, the request went to a different chain than the one you are using. Request again from the link for the chain you need.

Keep a small PAS balance in reserve afterwards: like other Substrate-based chains, an account needs one to stay active and pay fees.

Learn more