# REST / gRPC APIs

Use Pinot APIs when you need programmatic access rather than a direct client library or BI connector. The main surfaces are broker query APIs for SQL, broker gRPC for higher-throughput query clients, and controller APIs for cluster and table administration.

## What belongs here

| Surface                | Best for                                                    | Notes                                                                                           |
| ---------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Broker REST query APIs | SQL queries from applications or scripts                    | The broker exposes the query endpoints used by the query console and the standard SQL docs.     |
| Broker gRPC API        | Higher-throughput query clients                             | The gRPC surface supports binary transport and client-specific encoding or compression options. |
| Controller admin APIs  | Cluster, schema, table, segment, quota, and task operations | The controller is the management surface and is what the Admin UI exposes through Swagger.      |

## How to choose

Use broker REST if you want the most familiar query flow and do not need gRPC transport. Use broker gRPC when you care about client-side efficiency or want a gRPC transport layer. Use controller APIs when you are changing metadata or managing the cluster rather than querying data.

The detailed endpoint inventory belongs in Reference > API reference. This page stays intentionally light and points you toward the right surface instead of duplicating every endpoint.

## Detailed docs

* [API reference](https://docs.pinot.apache.org/reference/api-reference)
* [Broker Query API](https://docs.pinot.apache.org/reference/api-reference/query-api)
* [Query Response Format](https://docs.pinot.apache.org/reference/api-reference/query-response-format)
* [Broker gRPC API](https://docs.pinot.apache.org/reference/api-reference/broker-grpc-api)
* [Controller API Examples](https://docs.pinot.apache.org/reference/api-reference/controller-api)
* [Controller Admin API](https://docs.pinot.apache.org/reference/api-reference/controller-admin-api)

## What this page covered

This page covered the three programmatic API surfaces most users reach for: broker REST queries, broker gRPC queries, and controller administration.

## Next step

Use the broker query docs for SQL access or the controller docs for metadata and cluster operations, then move to Reference for the full endpoint inventory.

## Related pages

* [Client libraries](https://docs.pinot.apache.org/build-with-pinot/connectors-clients-apis/client-libraries)
* [Querying Pinot](https://docs.pinot.apache.org/build-with-pinot/querying-and-sql/querying-pinot)
* [Configuration reference](https://docs.pinot.apache.org/reference/configuration-reference)
* [API reference](https://docs.pinot.apache.org/reference/api-reference)