Efficient API Design for High-Performance Web Applications A Practical Comparison of REST and GraphQL

Dr, Madhur Jain, Dr, Shilpi Jain, Mr, Ayush Attri, Mr, Manish Raj, Mr and Aman Aggarwal

International Journal of Scientific Research in Computer Science, Engineering and Information Technology, 2026, vol. 12, issue 5, 537-545

Abstract: Web applications utilize APIs in transporting messages of data from the browser to mobile applications, backend server, and other distributed areas. Despite other options being available, REST remains the most commonly used method due to its natural use of HTTP, ability to make calls that are stateless, plus its already established caching technique. The system also has some disadvantages in that clients may receive far more information than that required, or need to make calls many times for information from resources that are interlinked. GraphQL has a completely different design. It allows the client to request only the specific data that is required and thereby reduces wastage. However, this comes at the cost of extra processing in the server, which is required for parsing, validating, and executing the queries. This paper will seek to conduct a comparison between REST and GraphQL with respect to performance. It will compare the two with respect to response time, size of the payload, total number of requests made, among others. We suggest that both APIs be used in a control test which utilizes the same data, the same equipment or different containers, as well as identical monitoring devices. Instead of one system being better

Keywords: REST; GraphQL; API Design; Web Applications; Performance; Response Time; Payload Size; Scalability; Network Overhead; Distributed Systems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
Note: Article URL: https://ijsrcseit.com/home/article/view/CSEIT2624154
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DOI: 10.32628/CSEIT2624154

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