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WSO2 API Manager Overview

WSO2 API Manager is a complete platform for building, integrating, and exposing your digital services as managed APIs. Irrespective of cloud, on-premise, or hybrid architectures, API Manager provides the tools to drive your digital transformation strategy from design to deployment.

Visit the API Manager documentation website to explore detailed guides, tutorials, and component references.

This page provides a high-level map of the API Manager's capabilities to help you understand the ecosystem.

Core Capabilities

The platform is divided into several key functional areas to manage the entire API lifecycle:

Design and Manage APIs

Build, iterate, and apply policies to your APIs and API products.

  • API Design Toolkit: Create, document, and mock REST, GraphQL, and AsyncAPI specifications.
  • AI-Powered Design: Generate APIs from natural language and create specialized AI APIs using the Design Assistant.

Discover APIs

Explore and subscribe to APIs and MCP (Model Context Protocol) Servers.

  • API Developer Portal: The central hub for application developers. Discover available APIs, subscribe applications, and manage API keys and credentials in one place.

Run APIs

Deploy and manage the runtime environment for your API traffic.

  • API Gateway: Secure, manage, and scale your standard API traffic (includes Classic and Federated Gateways).
  • AI Gateway: An enterprise-grade gateway specifically for AI workloads. Secure, monitor, and control access to LLMs with multi-provider routing, cost controls, and centralized governance.

Govern APIs

Oversee the security, usage, and automation of your API ecosystem.

  • API Security: Manage authentication, authorization, and tokens using the built-in Key Manager, and enforce design-time audits.
  • Analytics and Monetization: Track API usage, monitor performance, gain actionable insights, and configure billing for your API products.
  • APIOps: Automate your API lifecycle using CI/CD pipelines and the API Controller command-line tool.

Administration

Configure and manage the core system, users, and tenants. Manage system-wide policies (like rate limiting), register external Gateways and Key Managers, and oversee global configurations.

What's Next?

Follow the 15-minute quick start guide to get started with API Manager.