Payload CMS

Open-source headless CMS and fullstack Next.js framework providing automatic REST and GraphQL APIs for managing collections, globals, media, users, and custom fields in self-hosted or cloud deployments.

Payload CMS publishes 8 API contracts indexed on the APIs.io network, including Authentication API, Collections API, Globals API, and 5 more. Tagged areas include Headless CMS, Content Management, REST API, GraphQL, and Next.js.

The Payload CMS catalog on APIs.io includes 1 Spectral governance ruleset.

Payload CMS’s developer surface includes documentation, engineering blog, pricing, and 10 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Profile data on GitHub

31.5/100 thin ▬ flat Agent 18/100 agent aware Front door AI 3/6 light Heartbeat 100/100 alive saas Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-11-06 · rubric v0.27.0 · Show this score on your site →

AccessFreemium

4 published contracts

Headless CMS Content Management REST API GraphQL Next.js Open Source Self-Hosted TypeScript Application Framework CMS Content Headless

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-11-06 · rubric v0.27.0

Composite quality — 31.5/100 · thin

Contract Quality 8.7 / 19

Developer Ergonomics 3.6 / 15

Access Clarity 2.8 / 15

Operational Transparency 1.3 / 10

Contract Governance 1.2 / 9

Discoverability 5.4 / 8

Regulatory Posture 1.8 / 15

Create-or-Update Ergonomics 2.2 / 10

Agent readiness — 18/100 · agent aware

Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 0 / 10

Documented Reversibility 0 / 6

MCP Server 0 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 10 / 10

Idempotency 0 / 9

Stable Error Semantics 0 / 8

Request/Response Examples 0 / 7

Rate-Limit Signaling 7 / 7

Typed Event Surface 0 / 6

Agent Skills 0 / 5

Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4

Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3

A2A Agent Card 0 / 8

Dry-Run / Simulate Mode 0 / 4

Delegated User Identity 0 / 6

Protected Resource Metadata 0 / 5

Registration Without a Human 0 / 6

Agentic Commerce Well-Known Document 0 / 5

Pagination 5 / 5

Distinct Operations 3 / 3

MCP Tool Quality 6 / 6

Regulatory Posture applies to this provider. Its tags matched the Horizontal (data, software, accessibility, platform) regime, so Regulatory Posture carries 15 points of the composite. If this regime is wrong for your business, say so on your provider repo — the applicability map is public and we will correct it.

Create-or-Update Ergonomics applies to this provider. This API accepts writes, so it carries 10 points of the composite. It is scored from the published contracts themselves: whether a caller can create-or-update in one call, whether the write accepts a key the caller already holds, and whether the response says which branch ran. Without that, every write needs a search-and-branch in front of it, and the first time that check is skipped a duplicate record is created. Scored against the observed mean rather than raw — a provider at the catalog average is unchanged by this facet, not penalised by it.

The six quality facets above are damped to 75 points between them, because the conditional facet above carries the other 25. That is why each facet's contribution is shown against a damped maximum: raising a quality facet moves the composite by 75% of its nominal weight, not 100%. The full arithmetic is at apis.io/rating/.

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Agent readiness — checks not met, largest first (exact, from this profile):

MCP Server +12 pts — deployment.mode + probe verdict on the mcp/ manifest, not the pointer; an unprobed slug falls back to authorship
Agentic Access Contract +10 pts — agentic_access artifact present (x-agentic-access), graded by author
Idempotency +9 pts — OpenAPI mutating operations declare an idempotency key — a header, a request-body property, or a named de-duplication token whose own description says so (verified); else common[].type matches /idempoten/i (documented)
Stable Error Semantics +8 pts — OpenAPI $refs a shared error schema across 4xx/5xx responses (verified), else common[].type includes ErrorCatalog / ErrorCodes / DeclineCodes
A2A Agent Card +8 pts — a2a/-a2a.yml manifest, graded on conformance.grade against A2A 1.0.0
Request/Response Examples +7 pts — share of operations carrying request/response examples; else an Examples / Code Samples link

10 more unmet checks in the Agent Readiness table above.

Kin Score — facets with the most composite points still available (weight × headroom):

Access Clarity scores 18.4 — up to +16.3 composite points
Developer Ergonomics scores 23.8 — up to +15.2 composite points
Contract Quality scores 46.4 — up to +13.4 composite points

Each check links to what satisfies it. Publish the artifact, or tell us where it already lives, and the score moves on the next scoring run.

Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. Every facet and dimension name above is a link: it opens that measurement's own page — what it means, the exact checks that feed it, how the whole catalog distributes on it, and the providers at the top of it. This rating is computed from the provider profile at artifacts.apis.io/payloadcms/apis.yml: open an issue on github.com/api-evangelist/payloadcms to ask a question or point us at an artifact you publish. Submit an artifact on GitHub — free → Manage your own listing — the Influence plan, $499/mo →

Standards implemented 2

Standards this provider implements or carries. De facto ones are profiled and measured by the API Commons; formal ones come from the standards directory and are linked by the provider's own tags. The evidence column says how each claim was established — not that it was made.

GraphQL

tagged — the provider's own APIs.json carries the standard as a tag; implementation not verified

OpenAPI

measured — observed by APIs.io (published)

APIs 8

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

Payload CMS REST API

Auto-generated RESTful API for managing collections, globals, media uploads, users, and preferences. Mounted at /api/{collection-slug} with full CRUD operations plus authenticat...

Payload CMS GraphQL API

Fully featured GraphQL API exposed at /api/graphql with auto-generated types for all collections and globals. Includes a GraphQL Playground at /api/graphql-playground and suppor...

Payload CMS Local API

Server-side Node.js API for direct database interaction without HTTP overhead. Supports all collection and global operations including authentication, ideal for React Server Com...

Payload

Payload is a TypeScript-first headless CMS and application framework that automatically generates REST, GraphQL, and Local APIs from collection schemas, with built-in authentica...

Payload CMS Authentication API

The Authentication API from Payload CMS — 8 operation(s) for authentication.

Payload CMS Collections API

The Collections API from Payload CMS — 3 operation(s) for collections.

Payload CMS Globals API

The Globals API from Payload CMS — 1 operation(s) for globals.

Payload CMS Preferences API

The Preferences API from Payload CMS — 1 operation(s) for preferences.

Scroll for all 8

GraphQL 2

GraphQL schemas published by this provider.

Payload GraphQL API

Payload is a TypeScript-first headless CMS and application framework that automatically generates REST, GraphQL, and Local APIs from collection schemas, with built-in authentica...

GRAPHQL

Payload CMS GraphQL API

Payload CMS ships a fully featured GraphQL API generated automatically from your collection and global configurations. Every collection defined in your Payload config produces a...

GRAPHQL

Payload CMS API pricing

Not yet checked against Payload CMS's own pricing page. Compiled by API Evangelist; confirm before you rely on a figure. A free plan or tier is listed.

Plan	Price
Free (Self-Hosted)	Free
Standard Cloud	$35
Pro Cloud	$199
Enterprise Cloud	$833

Plan details, limits and sources →

Pricing Plans 1

Published pricing tiers and plan structures.

Payloadcms Plans Pricing

4 plans

PLANS

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Payloadcms Rate Limits

4 limits

RATE LIMITS

Service Levels 1

Uptime the provider promises or reports, as SLA4OAI. Read from its own pages; APIs.io runs no monitors.

Payload CMS

SLA

FinOps 1

Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.

Payloadcms Finops

FINOPS

Spectral Rules 1

Spectral governance rulesets for linting and validating these APIs.

Payload CMS API Rules

40 rules · 38 errors 1 warnings 1 info

SPECTRAL

Security Posture 1

Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.

Payloadcms Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · HSTS · DMARC

SECURITY

Resources

Documentation 2

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Documentation

Documentation

Documentation

Documentation

Build 1

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

GitHubOrg

GitHubOrg

Access & Security 1

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

DomainSecurity

DomainSecurity

Operate 1

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

RateLimits

RateLimits

Commercial 3

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

Pricing

Pricing

Plans

Plans

FinOps

FinOps

Company 4

The organization behind the API

Website

Website

LinkedIn

Blog

Blog

Blog

Blog

Other 1

Properties that don't map to a standard resource type

Source (apis.yml)

aid: payloadcms
name: Payload CMS
description: Open-source headless CMS and fullstack Next.js framework providing automatic REST and GraphQL APIs for managing
  collections, globals, media, users, and custom fields in self-hosted or cloud deployments.
deliveryModel:
  model: saas
  open_source: false
  commercial: true
  callable_host: false
  label: Hosted service · you call their endpoint
  confidence: medium
  source:
  - pricing
  generated: '2026-08-28'
  method: derived
accessModel:
  pricing: freemium
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Freemium
  confidence: low
  source:
  - plans
  - security
  generated: '2026-11-06'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/payloadcms.png
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/payloadcms/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
created: '2026-06-13'
modified: '2026-06-13'
specificationVersion: '0.23'
tags:
- Headless CMS
- Content Management
- REST API
- GraphQL
- Next.js
- Open Source
- Self-Hosted
- TypeScript
- Application Framework
- CMS
- Content
- Headless
tags_raw:
- Headless CMS
- Content Management
- REST API
- GraphQL
- Next.js
- Open Source
- Self-Hosted
- TypeScript
- Open-Source
- Application Framework
- CMS
- Content
- Headless
apis:
- aid: payloadcms:rest-api
  name: Payload CMS REST API
  description: Auto-generated RESTful API for managing collections, globals, media uploads, users, and preferences. Mounted
    at /api/{collection-slug} with full CRUD operations plus authentication endpoints.
  humanURL: https://payloadcms.com/docs/rest-api/overview
  baseURL: https://{your-domain}/api
  tags:
  - REST
  - Collection
  - Globals
  - Authentication
  - Media
  tags_raw:
  - REST
  - Collections
  - Globals
  - Authentication
  - Media
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://payloadcms.com/docs/rest-api/overview
- aid: payloadcms:graphql-api
  name: Payload CMS GraphQL API
  description: Fully featured GraphQL API exposed at /api/graphql with auto-generated types for all collections and globals.
    Includes a GraphQL Playground at /api/graphql-playground and supports complexity limiting to prevent abuse.
  humanURL: https://payloadcms.com/docs/graphql/overview
  baseURL: https://{your-domain}/api/graphql
  tags:
  - GraphQL
  - Collection
  - Globals
  - Authentication
  tags_raw:
  - GraphQL
  - Collections
  - Globals
  - Authentication
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://payloadcms.com/docs/graphql/overview
  - url: graphql/payloadcms-graphql.md
    type: GraphQL
- aid: payloadcms:local-api
  name: Payload CMS Local API
  description: Server-side Node.js API for direct database interaction without HTTP overhead. Supports all collection and
    global operations including authentication, ideal for React Server Components and server-side rendering.
  humanURL: https://payloadcms.com/docs/local-api/overview
  baseURL: https://{your-domain}
  tags:
  - Node.js
  - Server-Side
  - Collection
  - Globals
  tags_raw:
  - Node.js
  - Server-Side
  - Collections
  - Globals
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://payloadcms.com/docs/local-api/overview
- aid: payloadcms:payload
  name: Payload
  description: Payload is a TypeScript-first headless CMS and application framework that automatically generates REST, GraphQL,
    and Local APIs from collection schemas, with built-in authentication, access control, and a Next.js admin panel.
  humanURL: https://payloadcms.com/
  baseURL: https://payloadcms.com/api
  tags:
  - CMS
  - Content
  - Headless
  - REST
  - GraphQL
  - TypeScript
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://payloadcms.com/docs
  - type: REST API
    url: https://payloadcms.com/docs/rest-api/overview
  - type: GraphQL API
    url: https://payloadcms.com/docs/graphql/overview
  - type: Local API
    url: https://payloadcms.com/docs/local-api/overview
  - type: Authentication
    url: https://payloadcms.com/docs/authentication/overview
  - type: GitHub
    url: https://github.com/payloadcms/payload
  - type: Pricing
    url: https://payloadcms.com/cloud-pricing
  - url: graphql/payload-graphql.md
    type: GraphQL
- aid: payloadcms:payloadcms-authentication-api
  name: Payload CMS Authentication API
  description: The Authentication API from Payload CMS — 8 operation(s) for authentication.
  humanURL: https://payloadcms.com/docs/rest-api/overview
  baseURL: https://{your-domain}/api
  tags:
  - Authentication
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/payloadcms-authentication-api-openapi.yml
- aid: payloadcms:payloadcms-collections-api
  name: Payload CMS Collections API
  description: The Collections API from Payload CMS — 3 operation(s) for collections.
  humanURL: https://payloadcms.com/docs/rest-api/overview
  baseURL: https://{your-domain}/api
  tags:
  - Collection
  tags_raw:
  - Collections
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/payloadcms-collections-api-openapi.yml
- aid: payloadcms:payloadcms-globals-api
  name: Payload CMS Globals API
  description: The Globals API from Payload CMS — 1 operation(s) for globals.
  humanURL: https://payloadcms.com/docs/rest-api/overview
  baseURL: https://{your-domain}/api
  tags:
  - Globals
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/payloadcms-globals-api-openapi.yml
- aid: payloadcms:payloadcms-preferences-api
  name: Payload CMS Preferences API
  description: The Preferences API from Payload CMS — 1 operation(s) for preferences.
  humanURL: https://payloadcms.com/docs/rest-api/overview
  baseURL: https://{your-domain}/api
  tags:
  - Preferences
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/payloadcms-preferences-api-openapi.yml
common:
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/payloadcms-domain-security.yml
- type: Website
  url: https://payloadcms.com
- type: Documentation
  url: https://payloadcms.com/docs/getting-started/what-is-payload
- type: GitHubOrg
  url: https://github.com/payloadcms
- type: LinkedIn
  url: https://www.linkedin.com/company/payload-cms
- type: Blog
  url: https://payloadcms.com/posts/blog
- type: Pricing
  url: https://payloadcms.com/cloud
- type: X
  url: https://x.com/payloadcms
- type: Plans
  url: plans/payloadcms-plans-pricing.yml
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/payloadcms-rate-limits.yml
- type: FinOps
  url: finops/payloadcms-finops.yml
- type: Documentation
  url: https://payloadcms.com/docs
- type: Blog
  url: https://payloadcms.com/posts
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com

Payload CMS API — frequently asked questions

Does Payload CMS have an API?

Yes. APIs.io lists 8 APIs from Payload CMS, including Payload CMS REST API, Payload CMS GraphQL API and Payload CMS Local API, and 5 more.

Is there an OpenAPI specification for the Payload CMS API?

Yes. APIs.io indexes 4 OpenAPI specifications for Payload CMS, each linked for download from this page.

How do I authenticate with the Payload CMS API?

Payload CMS uses bearer-token authentication.

How much does the Payload CMS API cost?

APIs.io lists 4 pricing plans for Payload CMS, with each plan's price, limits and inclusions under Pricing on this page.

Is the Payload CMS API ready for AI agents?

Payload CMS has a Kin Score of 31.5 out of 100 (thin) and an Agent Readiness score of 17.9 (agent-aware), scored by API Evangelist on 2026-11-06.

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