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Introduction to API authentication

Authenticating APIs

Ossi Galkin avatar
Written by Ossi Galkin
Updated over a year ago

Introduction to API authentication

In this module you will learn what API authentication and authorization mean and what authentication and authorization methods Frends supports.

  • Authentication refers to identifying the API client, whether the client is a human or a system.

  • Authorization refers to the process of verifying whether the authenticated API client has access to the requested action.

Frends might authenticate an API client, but not authorize it to make a certain request. For example, the API client can make a request with a valid API Key, but the API Key may not have right to access all APIs published with Frends.


Authentication and authorization with APIs serves the following purposes:

  • Limit API access for authenticated and authorized users only.

  • Track who is using the APIs:

    • Who is using which APIs and how much.

  • Limit API access to certain rate limits (= API quota).

  • Apply different access rights for different users.

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