---
title: Authenticate over REST
description: Authenticate users to PingAM using REST API endpoints for login, session management, and logout operations
component: pingam
version: 7.5
page_id: pingam:am-authentication:authn-rest
canonical_url: https://docs.pingidentity.com/pingam/8.1/am-authentication/authn-rest.html
llms_txt: https://docs.pingidentity.com/pingam/llms.txt
docs_for_agents: https://developer.pingidentity.com/build-with-ai/docs-for-agents.md
keywords: ["Authentication", "REST API"]
page_aliases: ["authentication-guide:authn-rest.adoc"]
superseded_by: https://docs.pingidentity.com/pingam/8.1/am-authentication/authn-rest.html
---

# Authenticate over REST

AM provides the `/json/authenticate` endpoint for authentication, and the `/json/sessions` endpoint for managing sessions and logging out.

The following table summarizes authentication operations you can perform using REST:

| Task                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        | Resources                                                                             |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Authenticate to AM**Authenticating to AM means logging in to a specific realm and receiving a session token from AM. Add parameters to the authentication request to provide AM with more information about how you want to authenticate. | [Log in to AM over REST](login-using-REST.html)                                       |
| **Use the session token**AM provides you with a session token after authenticating to a realm. Use this token in subsequent calls to AM. For example, when using REST calls to create, modify, or delete configuration objects.             | [Session token after authentication](rest-using-ssotokens.html)                       |
| **Log out of AM**Log out your users by sending a `logout` action to the `/json/sessions` endpoint.                                                                                                                                          | [Log out of AM over REST](logout-using-rest.html)                                     |
| **Invalidate sessions**Obtain all the sessions for a given user and invalidate them to ensure they are logged out of AM.                                                                                                                    | [Invalidate sessions](../am-sessions/managing-sessions-REST.html#invalidate-sessions) |