---
description: How to use the API playground to try out n8n's public REST API.
---

# Using the API playground

The n8n API comes with a built-in Swagger UI playground. This provides interactive documentation, allowing you to try out requests. The path to access the playground depends on your hosting.

For self-hosted users, n8n constructs the path from values set in your environment variables:

```shell
N8N_HOST:N8N_PORT/N8N_PATH/api/v<version-number>/docs
```

For n8n Cloud users, the API playground path contains your cloud instance URL:

```shell
<your-cloud-instance>/api/v<version-number>/docs
```

!!! warning "Real data"
    If you click **Authorize** and enter your API key in the API playground, you have access to your live data. This is useful for trying out requests. However, be aware you can change or delete real data.

The API includes built-in documentation about credential formats. This is available using the `credentials` endpoint:

```shell
<your-cloud-instance>/api/v<version-number>/credentials/schema/{credentialTypeName}
```

!!! note "How to find `credentialTypeName`"
    To find the type, download your workflow as JSON and examine it. For example, for a Google Drive node the `{credentialTypeName}` is `googleDriveOAuth2Api` :
```json
{
    ...,
    "credentials": {
        "googleDriveOAuth2Api": {
        "id": "9",
        "name": "Google Drive"
        }
    }
}
```