Any file inside the folder `pages/api` is mapped to `/api/*` and will be treated as an API endpoint instead of a `page`. They are server-side only bundles and won't increase your client-side bundle size.
-`req`: An instance of [http.IncomingMessage](https://nodejs.org/api/http.html#http_class_http_incomingmessage), plus some pre-built middlewares you can see [here](/docs/api-routes/api-middlewares.md)
-`res`: An instance of [http.ServerResponse](https://nodejs.org/api/http.html#http_class_http_serverresponse), plus some helper functions you can see [here](/docs/api-routes/response-helpers.md)
To handle different HTTP methods in an API route, you can use `req.method` in your request handler, like so:
- API Routes [do not specify CORS headers](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/CORS), meaning they are **same-origin only** by default. You can customize such behavior by wrapping the request handler with the [cors middleware](/docs/api-routes/api-middlewares.md#connectexpress-middleware-support).
- API Routes can't be used with [`next export`](/docs/advanced-features/static-html-export.md)