> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.cortexlabs.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.cortexlabs.com/0.32/workloads/async-apis.md).

# Async APIs

The AsyncAPI kind is designed for asynchronous workloads, in which the user submits a request to start the processing and retrieves the result later, either by polling or through a webhook.

The design is summarized in the image below.

![](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/7456627/111491999-9b67f100-873c-11eb-87f0-effcf4aab01b.png)

The Async Gateway is responsible for submitting the workloads to the queue and for the retrieval of the respective workload status and results. Cortex fully manages the Async Gateway and the queue, while the user is in charge of implementing the API predictor. Autoscaling is provided based on the average number of messages in the queue.

## Use-cases

AsyncAPI matches the use-cases of the users that want to submit longer machine learning workloads, such as video, audio or document processing, and do not need the result immediately.

{% hint style="info" %}
AsyncAPI is still in a beta state.
{% endhint %}


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