This guide will help you understand the core APIs you'll use to find and receive the exact data you need. We'll break down each component and show how they fit together to create efficient and powerful workflows, whether you need a one-time download or continuous monitoring.

Core and Helper APIs: The Building Blocks

Think of Planet's APIs as a set of tools. Some do the heavy lifting of searching and processing, while others are helpers that store your settings to make your life easier.

• Core APIs (The "Doers"):
  • Data API: Your tool for searching Planet's catalog.
  • Orders API: Your tool for processing and downloading specific images you've found.
  • Subscriptions API: Your tool for automating search and delivery for monitoring and archive images.
• Helper APIs (The "Organizers"):
  • Features API: A place to store and manage your Areas of Interest (AOIs).
  • Destinations API: A secure vault to store your cloud storage credentials for delivery.

Let's see how they work!
 

Helper APIs: Setting Up for Success

Before you search for data, it's smart to set up your AOIs and delivery locations. This saves you from repeatedly defining them in every request.

Features API: Your AOI Locker 
Instead of pasting a complex geometry (like a GeoJSON polygon) into every API request, you can upload it once to the Features API. You give your AOI a unique ID and can then reference it easily in any search or order.

• What it does: Stores your Areas of Interest (geometries).
• Why it's useful: Simplifies requests by letting you reference a stored AOI by its ID instead of including the full geometry every time.
• Use it with: The Data API, Orders API, and Subscriptions API.

Destinations API: Your Secure Cloud Connection 
If you want imagery delivered directly to your cloud storage (like AWS S3 or Google Cloud Storage), the Destinations API is where you securely store those credentials. Planet can then access your bucket to deliver data without you ever having to put secret keys directly into your scripts.

• What it does: Securely stores credentials for cloud storage buckets.
• Why it's useful: Enables seamless and secure cloud delivery for the Orders and Subscriptions APIs.

Core APIs: Finding and Getting Your Imagery

Now that your setup is organized, you can find and retrieve the imagery you need.
 

Data API: The Search Engine 🔎
The Data API is your primary tool for querying Planet's vast catalog of satellite imagery. You can build filters to find exactly what you're looking for based on date, cloud cover, satellite type, and your AOI.
Some useful things you can do with the data API:

• Finding Intersecting vs. Full-Cover Images: By default, a search returns any scene that simply intersects your AOI. If you need images that fully cover your AOI, you must specify that using a geometry filter.
• Calculating AOI-Level Cloud Cover: The metadata for an image lists the cloud cover for the entire captured scene, not just your specific AOI. To get a more accurate cloud cover percentage calculated just for your area, use the clear coverage endpoint of the Data API. This is crucial for ensuring the imagery you select is actually clear over your area of interest.

Orders API: On-Demand Processing and Delivery 
Once you've used the Data API to find the specific Item IDs of the images you want, you use the Orders API to get them. This API is for one-time, specific requests. It lets you process the raw data into more useful formats and deliver it where you need it.

• Key Features:
  • Select Assets: Choose which data products you need, like visual (visual) or analysis-ready Surface Reflectance (analytic_sr) by specifying a product bundle in your request.
  • Apply Tools: Perform operations like clipping the image to your exact AOI, ensuring you only get the pixels you need.
  • Flexible Delivery: Choose between a direct download link or cloud delivery to a location you've set up with the Destinations API.

Subscriptions API: Automated Monitoring and Delivery
The Subscriptions API is your "set it and forget it" solution for monitoring. It combines the power of the Data API's search with the Orders API's delivery into a single, automated workflow. You define your search criteria once, and any new imagery that matches your query in the future will be automatically processed and delivered to your cloud storage.

• How it works: It acts as an automated search that triggers a delivery order whenever a new, matching image is published or a historical match is found in the archive depending on the request parameters.
• Perfect for: Monitoring use cases, such as tracking deforestation, agricultural health, or construction projects under an "area under management" plan. It saves you from having to manually run the same search every day.
• Key Features:
  • Automated search and delivery for both archive images as well as monitoring images:
  • Apply Tools: Perform operations like clipping the image to your exact AOI. The Subscriptions API cloud filter tool also supports granular filtering at the AOI level.