HTTPS call
An HTTPS call is a single encrypted request that a program sends over the internet to a remote computer in order to fetch or deliver data there. Almost every action in apps, websites, and AI services triggers such calls in the background.
When your phone fetches data from the internet, it asks a remote computer for it. This remote computer is called a server, and it waits all day long for such requests. The language in which the question and answer are formulated is called HTTP. If an S is added, the transmission is encrypted: outsiders can intercept it along the way, but they only see unreadable gibberish. An HTTPS call is exactly such a process: a sent question plus the returning answer. So the term doesn’t refer to the technology in general, but to the individual request as a countable unit.
Why every single call costs money
In the tech world, people rarely talk about HTTP traffic in general, but rather about the volume of calls. The reason is simple: every call causes work on the server. This work costs electricity, computing time, and in some cases a new machine in the data center.
This becomes especially clear with AI services. Anyone who wants to use OpenAI’s or Google's models in their own app sends an HTTPS call to their servers for every user question. Billing happens per call and per amount of text transmitted. An app with a million users can quickly generate millions of calls per day. This is exactly why figures like “calls per second” show up in quarterly reports and investor presentations.
A second point is time. Every call takes time because the data has to physically travel through cables. A request to California and back takes around 150 milliseconds even with a perfect connection. If a website makes a hundred such calls in a row, it feels sluggish. Good developers therefore try to get by with as few calls as possible.
What happens between request and response
At the start there is an address, the URL. It says which server is meant and what information is wanted there. Before anything is transmitted, both sides agree on a secret key. This step is called a handshake and takes only a fraction of a second. The server identifies itself in the process with a certificate, a kind of digital ID.
After that, the actual request goes out. It contains a method that specifies the purpose. “GET” means: I want to fetch something. “POST” means: I’m sending you something, save it. In addition, there are extra pieces of information in the so-called header, for example a key that proves the sender is a paying customer.
The server responds with a status code and the actual data. Code 200 means: it worked. Code 404 means: doesn’t exist here. Code 429 means: you’re asking too often, wait a moment. The data itself usually arrives in the JSON format, a structured notation that programs can easily take apart. Incidentally, a common misconception is that HTTPS protects the data on the server. Only the transport path there is encrypted.
HTTPS calls in apps, interfaces, and price lists
You trigger HTTPS calls constantly without noticing. A weather app fetches the forecast via a call. A chat loads new messages. While scrolling through a feed, the app keeps sending new requests. The lock icon in the browser’s address bar indicates that the connection is encrypted.
In the tech industry, you mainly encounter the term in connection with interfaces, or APIs for short. An API is a fixed set of addresses that a provider exposes so that other programs can use its services. Practically every such interface is addressed via HTTPS calls. When a company says it has “connected its product via API,” that’s exactly what it means.
This also comes up in the news. If a major service goes down, you read about error codes and rejected requests. Cloud providers' price lists often bill per million calls. And when an AI provider complains about capacity strain, it’s usually about more incoming calls than its data centers can handle.
