# Introduction

## Microshot API Reference

The Microshot API is organized around [REST](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_State_Transfer). Our API has predictable resource-oriented URLs,  uses JSON format for request bodies, returns [JSON-encoded](http://www.json.org/) responses, and uses standard HTTP response codes, authentication, and verbs.

### REST API <a href="#rest-api" id="rest-api"></a>

The Microshot API adheres to [REST](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_State_Transfer) conventions. Our API communicates in JSON format and uses [API tokens](https://docs.microshot.io/authentication) to authenticate requests.&#x20;

The server-side REST API is available at:

```
https://api.microshot.io
```

By default, the API returns the screenshot image data directly, along with the relevant headers. However, if you set the  [response\_type](https://docs.microshot.io/endpoints/screenshot#capture-screenshot) parameter to `json` the response will be in the form of a JSON which contains a link to the generated screenshot hosted on our CDN.

All the screenshots are cached for 24 hours. It means that after that time, the image won't be available anymore on our CDN. Cached screenshots don't count in your monthly quota.

## Start exploring API

Dive a little deeper and start exploring our API endpoints to get an idea of everything that's possible with the API:

{% content-ref url="endpoints" %}
[endpoints](https://docs.microshot.io/endpoints)
{% endcontent-ref %}