A large part of the confusion is that "OpenID" is, yes, basically just authentication. It's clearly not OAuth. "OpenID Connect" is basically OAuth though. It

A large part of the confusion is that "OpenID" is, yes, basically just authentication. It's clearly not OAuth. "OpenID Connect" is basically OAuth though. It even says so on their website: https://openid.net/connect/faq/ https://openid.net/connect/faq/ >OpenID Connect is an interoperable authentication protocol based on the OAuth 2.0 family of specifications. They're quite different things, they're just (ab)using the "OpenID" name for brand recognition.