# Monitor REST API execution with Amazon CloudWatch metrics
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You can monitor API execution by using CloudWatch, which collects and processes raw data from API Gateway into readable, near-real-time metrics. These statistics are recorded for a period of 15 months so you can access historical information and gain a better perspective on how your web application or service is performing. By default, API Gateway metric data is automatically sent to CloudWatch in one-minute periods. For more information, see [What Is Amazon CloudWatch?](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/WhatIsCloudWatch.html) in the *Amazon CloudWatch User Guide*.

The metrics reported by API Gateway provide information that you can analyze in different ways. The following list shows some common uses for the metrics that are suggestions to get you started:
+ Monitor the **IntegrationLatency** metrics to measure the responsiveness of the backend.
+ Monitor the **Latency** metrics to measure the overall responsiveness of your API calls.
+ Monitor the **CacheHitCount** and **CacheMissCount** metrics to optimize cache capacities to achieve a desired performance.

**Topics**
+ [Amazon API Gateway dimensions and metrics](api-gateway-metrics-and-dimensions.md)
+ [View CloudWatch metrics with the API dashboard in API Gateway](how-to-api-dashboard.md)
+ [View API Gateway metrics in the CloudWatch console](metrics_dimensions_view_in_cloud_watch.md)
+ [View API Gateway log events in the CloudWatch console](view-cloudwatch-log-events-in-cloudwatch-console.md)
+ [Monitoring tools in AWS for API Gateway](monitoring_automated_manual.md)