vocabulary: IBM Quantum
provider: IBM Quantum
providerId: ibm-quantum
created: '2026-05-25'
modified: '2026-05-25'
description: Operational and capability vocabulary for IBM Quantum — terms surfaced by Qiskit, IBM Quantum Platform, and the Qiskit Runtime REST API. Use this taxonomy to align IBM Quantum artifacts with the API Evangelist API Commons schema.
dimensions:
  domain:
    - Quantum Computing
    - High Performance Computing
    - Scientific Computing
    - Optimization
    - Quantum Chemistry
    - Materials Science
    - Finance
    - Machine Learning
  capability:
    - Quantum Circuit Execution
    - Quantum Circuit Simulation
    - Quantum Primitives — Sampler
    - Quantum Primitives — Estimator
    - Error Suppression
    - Error Mitigation
    - Quantum Compilation
    - Transpilation
    - Session Management
    - Workload Analytics
    - Job Lifecycle Management
  surface:
    - Qiskit SDK (Python)
    - Qiskit C API
    - Qiskit Runtime REST API
    - Qiskit Runtime Python Client
    - Qiskit Functions Catalog
    - IBM Quantum Platform Web UI
    - IBM Quantum Composer
  primitives:
    - Sampler
    - Estimator
  hardware:
    - Heron processor family
    - Eagle processor family
    - Condor processor family
    - Hummingbird processor family
  software_concepts:
    - Quantum Circuit
    - OpenQASM 2
    - OpenQASM 3
    - Pulse Schedule
    - Backend
    - Coupling Map
    - Basis Gates
    - Shots
    - Observables
    - Sampler Pubs
    - Estimator Pubs
    - Quantum Primitive Unified Bloc (PUB)
  business_concepts:
    - Open Plan
    - Pay-As-You-Go Plan
    - Flex Plan
    - Premium Plan
    - On-Premises Plan
    - Qiskit Functions
    - Qiskit Transpiler as a Service
    - Quantum compute time (QPU seconds, QPU minutes)
    - Service-CRN (instance identifier)
    - IBM Cloud IAM
  governance:
    - Apache 2.0 license (Qiskit, Qiskit Runtime, ecosystem)
    - IBM-API-Version header (date-based version pin)
    - Regional endpoints (Global, EU-DE)
    - Private jobs (encrypted results)
  ecosystem:
    - Qiskit Ecosystem registry
    - Qiskit Advocate Program
    - IBM Quantum Network
    - Qiskit Slack
    - Qiskit GitHub organization