There is common point of confusion. what's the different between REST API vs. HTTP API in AWS and what's the different between them and a traditional Rest API you write with e.g express in node in the broader software world, a "REST API" is just an architectural pattern built on top of HTTP requests. The confusion comes entirely from AWS-specific marketing terminology . When you are inside the AWS ecosystem, Amazon API Gateway is a specific managed service, and AWS chose to split that service in