# API reference

- [Overview](https://thegrid.ai/docs/api-reference/api-reference.md): The Grid exposes its inference market over HTTP. This section covers what to call, how to authenticate, and how the routing layer behaves at runtime.
- [Authentication](https://thegrid.ai/docs/api-reference/authentication.md): The Grid issues two types of API keys. Each key authenticates against a different API and uses a different scheme. This page covers how to generate, use, and rotate both.
- [Consumption API](https://thegrid.ai/docs/api-reference/consumption-api.md): The Consumption API is what you call to run inference. Two surfaces (OpenAI Chat Completions and Anthropic Messages) sit in front of the same routing engine.
- [Trading API](https://thegrid.ai/docs/api-reference/trading-api.md): Everything beyond inference. Read instrument specs, market data, balances, and past trades, or place limit orders yourself instead of letting Auto Mode buy on your behalf.
- [Errors and rate limits](https://thegrid.ai/docs/api-reference/errors-and-rate-limits.md): How both APIs report failure, which errors are retryable, and how rate limits behave on each key. Use this page when your client hits something other than a 200.
- [Request routing and redirects](https://thegrid.ai/docs/api-reference/request-routing-and-redirects.md): How a request to the Consumption API gets to the supplier fulfilling your inference, and which clients need configuration to follow the routing redirect.


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