Minimal APIs are architected to create HTTP APIs with minimal dependencies. They're ideal for microservices and apps that want to include only the minimum files, features, and dependencies in ASP.NET Core. This tutorial teaches the basics of building a minimal API with ASP.NET Core.

Another approach to creating APIs in ASP.NET Core is to use controllers. For help with choosing between minimal APIs and controller-based APIs, see APIs overview. For a tutorial on creating an API project based on controllers that contains more features, see Create a web API.