Payload CMS provides a robust REST API out of the box, making it easy to interact with content programmatically. Since it is a headless CMS, the API serves as the primary method for fetching, creating, updating, and deleting content. One of its biggest advantages is that every collection defined in Payload CMS automatically gets its own RESTful endpoints, eliminating the need to manually build API routes. For example, if you create a “Posts” collection, Payload CMS will automatically generate routes like GET /api/posts to fetch all posts and POST /api/posts to create a new post. Authentication is another key aspect of its API, supporting JWT-based authentication to ensure secure access to protected endpoints. Developers can also extend the default API behavior by creating custom Express routes within the Payload CMS backend, allowing for more complex business logic beyond standard CRUD operations. Furthermore, Payload CMS offers GraphQL support, giving developers an alternative method to fetch specific data with more flexibility than traditional REST APIs. The combination of an automatically generated API, security features, and extensibility makes Payload CMS a powerful choice for developers looking for an easy-to-integrate headless CMS solution.