Question Regarding the Use of Access Tokens

Retired Boards Appdev Authentication

Topic summary

Difference between using OAuth grant_type=client_credentials versus grant_type=urn:ietf:params:oauth:grant-type:token-exchange on the Shopify /admin/oauth/access_token endpoint.

Examples provided:

  • client_credentials: {client_id, client_secret, grant_type: client_credentials}.
  • token-exchange: {client_id, client_secret, grant_type: urn:ietf:params:oauth:grant-type:token-exchange, subject_token: xxx, urn:ietf:params:oauth:token-type:id_token: xxx}.

Observation: Both approaches returned the same result in a testing store; the poster asks what practical difference exists.

Key terms:

  • grant_type: OAuth parameter selecting the authorization flow.
  • client_credentials: typically obtains an access token using only client_id/client_secret (no user context).
  • token exchange: standard flow to exchange an existing token (subject_token), e.g., an ID token, for another token.

Status: No answers or resolution yet; the question remains open. The example request payloads are central to understanding the issue.

Summarized with AI on December 29. AI used: gpt-5.
1

What’s the difference between passing ‘client_credentials’ and ‘urn:ietf:params:oauth:grant-type:token-exchange’ as the ‘grant_type’ parameter in the following Shopify API endpoint:

https: // {shop}.myshopify.com/ admin/oauth/ access_token

Here are the example requests:

Using ‘client_credentials’:
{ client_id: xxx , client_secret: xxx , grant_type: client_credentials }
Using ‘urn:ietf:params:oauth:grant-type:token-exchange’:
{
client_id: xxx , client_secret: xxx , grant_type: urn:ietf:params:oauth:grant-type:token-exchange , subject_token: xxx , urn:ietf:params:oauth:token-type:id_token: xxx }
In my testing store, I received the exact same result with different parameters. What’s the difference between these two methods?