API Keys

Some APIs use API keys for authorization. An API key is a token that a client provides when making API calls. The key can be sent in the query string:

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GET /something?api_key=abcdef12345

or as a request header:

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GET /something HTTP/1.1
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X-API-Key: abcdef12345

or as a cookie:

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GET /something HTTP/1.1
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Cookie: X-API-KEY=abcdef12345

API keys are supposed to be a secret that only the client and server know. Like Basic authentication, API key-based authentication is only considered secure if used together with other security mechanisms such as HTTPS/SSL.

Describing API Keys

In OpenAPI 3.0, API keys are described as follows:

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openapi: 3.0.0
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---
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# 1) Define the key name and location
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components:
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  securitySchemes:
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    ApiKeyAuth: # arbitrary name for the security scheme
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      type: apiKey
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      in: header # can be "header", "query" or "cookie"
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      name: X-API-KEY # name of the header, query parameter or cookie
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# 2) Apply the API key globally to all operations
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security:
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  - ApiKeyAuth: [] # use the same name as under securitySchemes

This example defines an API key named X-API-Key sent as a request header X-API-Key: <key>. The key name ApiKeyAuth is an arbitrary name for the security scheme (not to be confused with the API key name, which is specified by the name key). The name ApiKeyAuth is used again in the security section to apply this security scheme to the API. Note: The securitySchemes section alone is not enough; you must also use security for the API key to have effect. security can also be set on the operation level instead of globally. This is useful if just a subset of the operations need the API key:

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paths:
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  /something:
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    get:
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      # Operation-specific security:
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      security:
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        - ApiKeyAuth: []
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      responses:
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        "200":
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          description: OK (successfully authenticated)

Note that it is possible to support multiple authorization types in an API. See Using Multiple Authentication Types.

Multiple API Keys

Some APIs use a pair of security keys, say, API Key and App ID. To specify that the keys are used together (as in logical AND), list them in the same array item in the security array:

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components:
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  securitySchemes:
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    apiKey:
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      type: apiKey
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      in: header
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      name: X-API-KEY
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    appId:
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      type: apiKey
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      in: header
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      name: X-APP-ID
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security:
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  - apiKey: []
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    appId: [] # <-- no leading dash (-)

Note the difference from:

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security:
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  - apiKey: []
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  - appId: []

which means either key can be used (as in logical OR). For more examples, see Using Multiple Authentication Types.

401 Response

You can define the 401 “Unauthorized” response returned for requests with missing or invalid API key. This response includes the WWW-Authenticate header, which you may want to mention. As with other common responses, the 401 response can be defined in the global components/responses section and referenced elsewhere via $ref.

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paths:
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  /something:
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    get:
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      ...
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      responses:
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        ...
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        '401':
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            $ref: "#/components/responses/UnauthorizedError"
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    post:
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      ...
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      responses:
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        ...
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        '401':
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          $ref: "#/components/responses/UnauthorizedError"
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components:
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  responses:
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    UnauthorizedError:
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      description: API key is missing or invalid
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      headers:
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        WWW_Authenticate:
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          schema:
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            type: string

To learn more about describing responses, see Describing Responses.

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