Usually, there is no evidence that companies as a whole make most of their revenue from APIs. Some businesses sell API access as a core product; others use APIs to support cloud services, advertising, software, subscriptions, or other offerings. Many large companies do not report API revenue separately. And revenue is not profit: a company’s sales mix does not by itself show where it earns most of its profit.
What counts as money “from APIs”?
An API lets one software system request data or functionality from another. For this question, the clearest definition of API revenue is money a company directly charges for API access or API-powered usage. That is narrower than all the money an API may help a company earn.
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- Direct API sales: a customer pays to make API calls or access a software capability.
- API-enabled sales: an API helps deliver a paid cloud service, subscription, transaction, or other product, but the company may not price or report the API separately.
- Internal use: a company uses APIs behind the scenes to connect its own systems. That can support its business without being a separately sold product.
These categories overlap in practice, but they are not interchangeable in financial reporting. In particular, usage-based billing does not automatically mean API billing.
What company filings reveal
Annual reports show what companies disclose as revenue streams; they do not necessarily isolate the contribution of every technical component used to deliver them. The examples below are based on the companies’ 2025 reporting.
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| Company | Role of APIs or services | What the filing reports | API-specific revenue share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alphabet | A diversified business with advertising, cloud solutions, subscriptions, apps and in-app purchases, and devices. | Its 2025 Form 10-K describes these revenue sources. | Not stated as a separate company-wide API revenue line in the 2025 Form 10-K. |
| Microsoft | A diversified business spanning cloud solutions, software licensing and support, online advertising, devices, content, and other services. | Its 2025 annual report describes these revenue sources. | Not stated as a separate company-wide API revenue line in the 2025 annual report. |
| Twilio | A communications-platform business centered on APIs, with software and data capabilities as well. | $5.067 billion total revenue in 2025. Usage-based fees accounted for 74% of revenue in 2025, compared with 72% in 2024 and 71% in 2023. | The filing does not identify the usage-based share as an API-only share. See Twilio’s 2025 Form 10-K. |
Twilio’s filing gives a useful example of why the distinction matters. The company says it generates revenue through “a combination of usage-based and subscription-based fees.” It identifies Messaging and Voice as examples of usage-based products, but does not equate all usage-based fees with API revenue. Its reported 2025 product-group revenue included $2.878 billion for Messaging, $615.655 million for Voice, and $523.470 million for Email. Those figures describe product groups; they are not a disclosed total for API revenue.
Why APIs can matter without appearing as a revenue line
APIs can be the product
An API provider can charge customers directly for access to a capability, often through usage charges, subscriptions, or a combination of the two. In that model, API access is close to the customer-facing product, as with Twilio’s communications platform. Even then, a company’s reported usage-based revenue may include products or services that are not defined as API-only.
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APIs can support another paid product
A cloud service or software product may use APIs to connect systems or expose functionality while being sold as a broader service. The company may report the sale under cloud, software, or another category rather than as API revenue.
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APIs can create indirect business value
An API may make a company’s underlying intellectual property easier for customers or partners to adopt and use, helping support sales of a broader offering. Microsoft Learn describes API monetization as a way to make underlying IP easier and more cost-efficient to market, adopt, consume, and scale. That explains a possible business model; it does not establish that APIs account for most companies’ revenue. See Microsoft Learn’s API monetization overview.
How to assess a claim that a company makes most of its money from APIs
- Define the measure. Check whether “money” means revenue or profit. A revenue share is not a profit share.
- Define “from APIs.” Separate direct API charges from broader usage-based fees, cloud revenue, or sales that APIs merely help enable.
- Check the company’s own reporting. Look for a clearly named API revenue figure and its accounting period. If the report groups APIs with other products, do not treat the whole group as API revenue.
- Compare like with like. API-specific figures should use comparable definitions and periods before they are compared across companies.
If a filing does not disclose an API-only figure, the accurate conclusion is that the share is not established by that filing—not that API revenue is zero, or that all related revenue comes from APIs.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.So, do companies make most of their revenue from APIs?
Some API-centered providers sell API access as a central part of their business. But the available company examples do not support a general claim that most companies earn most of their revenue from APIs. Diversified firms report a range of businesses, and even an API-centered company’s usage-based revenue cannot be relabeled as API revenue without a matching disclosure.
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