---
title: Search API authentication methods
slug: '102'
canonical_url: https://docs.coveo.com/en/102/
collection: build-a-search-ui
source_format: adoc
---
# Search API authentication methods

This page covers authentication methods specific to the Search API.
For authentication methods used by other Coveo platform APIs, see [Platform API authentication methods](https://docs.coveo.com/en/n3ge4046.md).

The Coveo Search API supports the following [authentication](https://docs.coveo.com/en/2120.md) methods:

* [API key authentication](https://docs.coveo.com/en/105.md) is the most basic way to [authenticate](https://docs.coveo.com/en/2120.md) callers.

* [Search token authentication](https://docs.coveo.com/en/56.md) implies creating special, expiring tokens which can temporarily grant [user](https://docs.coveo.com/en/250.md)-specific [privileges](https://docs.coveo.com/en/228.md).

* [Claims authentication](https://docs.coveo.com/en/113.md) lets [users](https://docs.coveo.com/en/250.md) access content [indexed](https://docs.coveo.com/en/204.md) from a SharePoint server.

* [SAML authentication](https://docs.coveo.com/en/91.md) is a standard XML-based protocol which is used by many single sign-on (SSO) systems.