What is an Application Programming Interface (API)? Definition or Meaning

An Application Programming Interface or an API is what computer developers use to allow different components of software to work together. A software company may release a ‘developer API’, to allow other computing experts to create new products that can combine with their service.

For example…

Financial software Xero includes an open API that allows other businesses to integrate their services. The benefit of this is that banks and other financial providers such as PayPal can be linked to Xero, making overall money management easier for businesses.