One of Bubble's most powerful features is its ability to connect to other applications on the web. By using what's called an API connection, your application can fetch data and execute commands in external software systems and vice versa.
Introduction to APIs
In this section we'll cover how APIs work in general. This is a fairly technical section that takes an in-depth look at the underlying structure and mechanics of a RESTful API call.
The information in this section is not needed for you to set up incoming and outgoing API requests in Bubble, but by knowing the basics you may find it easier to understand external API documentation and Bubble's settings.
Limits on the Free plan
Limits on the Free plan
To help you test and validate your app on the Free plan, Bubble enables you to use backend workflows. Certain operations, especially ones that send requests to external services, have Free plan limits that are only meant to cover testing. If your app needs to perform the following operations more often, upgrade to a paid plan.
Operation | Examples |
API calls | Calls made through the API Connector, and requests made by Bubble's built-in plugins |
Plugin server actions | Plugin actions that run on the server |
Emails | The Send email and Send meeting request by email actions, and confirmation, password reset, and magic link emails |
Notifications and triggers | Push notifications and triggering a Zap in Zapier |
File operations | Fetching files for API calls, and the |
Other services | Geocoding addresses and generating PDFs with SelectPDF |
Bubble is a highly flexible platform. This means that while we offer robust API security features, we don't enforce their utilization. It is essential to possess an understanding of the fundamental principles of API management, such as authentication[^2] and authorization[^3], in order to effectively secure one's implementation of the platform.
Throughout reading this guide you may find it useful to check our API Glossary if there are terms and definitions you are unsure about.
Getting started
If you are unfamiliar with how APIs work, we recommend starting with our introductory articles. The rest of the manual and reference entries will be easier to follow with an understanding of the basic principles:
While there are an abundance of different services you can connect to via an API, most of the follow the same basic architecture called REST.
The Bubble API manual
In this section we cover the different API tools that Bubble offers. An API is either incoming or outgoing.
An incoming request means that an external system is initiating a connection with your Bubble application to read/manipulate data or start a workflow. This is handled by the Bubble API.
An outgoing request means that your application initiates a connection with an external system to work with data or execute an action. This is handled by the API Connector.
Incoming Connections (The Data API and API Workflows)
Incoming Connections (The Data API and API Workflows)
Incoming requests are calls that are initiated by an external system, such as another app. They are split into two different tools:
The Data API allows other applications to connect to your app's database to read, create, edit and delete data
Article: The Data APIAPI Workflows allow other applications to execute workflows in your application remotely
Article: API Workflows
Outgoing Connections (The API Connector and plugins)
Outgoing Connections (The API Connector and plugins)
Outgoing connections mean that your Bubble application initiates a connection with an external system to work with data or execeute an action. This is handled by two different tools in Bubble:
The API Connector allows you to establish an API Connection with any third-party app or system that adheres to the RESTful architecture.
Article: The API ConnectorPlugins are extensions that can be installed in your Bubble application to serve different functions. Many plugins allow you to easily connect to different well-known APIs without having to set it up in the API Connector.
Article: Plugins that connect to APIs
API technical reference
API technical reference
If you are already familiar with how APIs work and want to see our technical reference, go here.
Section: API reference docs