AI Vocabulary · 06 Own Your AI
What is API?
The programmable connection to a model provider. You pay per token and keep more control than in a chat app.
An API (application programming interface) is how software talks to a model provider directly, without a chat app in between. Your own tool or workflow sends a request with instructions and context; the provider returns the answer.
APIs are usually priced per token used, rather than per seat. They give you more control: you choose the exact model and version, set the instructions, decide what data is sent and build the AI into your own processes. Business API terms often differ from consumer apps, for example on whether inputs are used for training.
Why it matters for you
For repeated business tasks, an API-based workflow can be cheaper, more consistent and easier to govern than everyone using a chat app their own way. It does require some technical setup.
Own it
Building on an API, ideally through a thin layer you control, makes switching providers a configuration change instead of a rebuild.
Where it comes from
The term was first used in a 1968 conference paper on remote computer graphics, Data Structures and Techniques for Remote Computer Graphics, long before the web. Today's web APIs owe a lot to Roy Fielding, whose 2000 doctoral dissertation described REST, the style most web services still follow. Model access followed the same path: in June 2020 OpenAI offered its models as a general "text in, text out" API.
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