title: "Use OWIN to Self-Host ASP.NET Web API 2 | Microsoft Docs"
author: rick-anderson
description: "This tutorial shows how to host ASP.NET Web API in a console application, using OWIN to self-host the Web API framework. Open Web Interface for .NET (OWIN) d..."
by [Kanchan Mehrotra](https://twitter.com/kanchanmeh)
> This tutorial shows how to host ASP.NET Web API in a console application, using OWIN to self-host the Web API framework.
>
> [Open Web Interface for .NET](http://owin.org) (OWIN) defines an abstraction between .NET web servers and web applications. OWIN decouples the web application from the server, which makes OWIN ideal for self-hosting a web application in your own process, outside of IIS.
>
> ## Software versions used in the tutorial
>
>
> - [Visual Studio 2013](https://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/eng/2013-downloads) (also works with Visual Studio 2012)
> - Web API 2
> [!NOTE]
> You can find the complete source code for this tutorial at [aspnet.codeplex.com](https://aspnet.codeplex.com/SourceControl/latest#Samples/WebApi/OwinSelfhostSample/ReadMe.txt).
## Create a Console Application
On the **File** menu, click **New**, then click **Project**. From **Installed Templates**, under Visual C#, click **Windows** and then click **Console Application**. Name the project "OwinSelfhostSample" and click **OK**.
From the **Tools** menu, click **Library Package Manager**, then click **Package Manager Console**. In the Package Manager Console window, enter the following command:
Next, add a Web API controller class. In Solution Explorer, right click the project and select **Add** / **Class** to add a new class. Name the class `ValuesController`.
Replace all of the boilerplate code in this file with the following:
