HN Explorer

API Keys

1 points by antonkal ↗ HN
WTF is an API key and how does it work? Let's say I have a great idea for an app. Obviously :)

I'm probably going to be using an API key to access OpenAI, or Google, or some other service.

And then I quit, because I have no idea how any of this stuff works...

3 comments

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codingdave
It is an identifier so that an API you call knows who you are and can determine whether you have access to their service.

If you are writing a web app that needs to call an API someone else has written, they may have you request an API key from them. You'll then have the back-end of your app send that key to their service with each request. On their end, they'll match it up to your account, verify you have access to make the request, and determine what response to send back to you.

stop50
Its an password for your application to access it.
JSDevOps
It’s a password like string generally for an API.