Endpoints vs Query API

PostHog offers two ways to run queries programmatically: the Query API and Endpoints. Here's how they differ and when to use each.

Query API

The Query API is a free-form API that lets you run any query. While flexible, it has some drawbacks:

• Impossible to optimize - Not knowing the query ahead of time makes it hard for us to help you get better performance.
• Harder to monitor - Tracking query performance over time requires querying the system.query_log table manually.
• Future pricing - We strongly discourage Query API usage and will eventually charge for it.

Endpoints

Endpoints provide a more stable, purpose-built solution for production use cases:

• Isolated compute - Materialized endpoints run on separate compute, avoiding the noisy neighbor problem and enabling better rate/concurrency limits.
• Easy monitoring - The Usage tab shows performance metrics out of the box.
• Developer experience - First-class features like versioning, OpenAPI specs, and easy configuration.
• Cost and speed controls - Materialization and caching let you trade data freshness for performance.
• Abuse prevention - Individual endpoints can be disabled if needed.

When to use each