# What Is an API?  ## About - Author: Postman API Platform - Title: What Is an API? - Tags: #articles - URL: https://www.postman.com/what-is-an-api/ ## Highlights In order to better understand this process, it can be useful to think of APIs like restaurants. In this metaphor, the customer is like the user, who tells the waiter what she wants. The waiter is like an API, receiving the customer's order and translating it into easy-to-follow instructions for the kitchen—sometimes using specific codes or abbreviations that the kitchen staff will recognize. The kitchen staff is like the API server because it creates the order according to the customer's specifications and gives it to the waiter, who then delivers it to the customer. ---