Grilling is heat from below; broiling is heat from above. Outdoors, you’re almost always grilling.

Basically, the difference is where the heat comes from. Grilling hits the food from underneath — coals, gas burners, whatever. Broiling hits from above, like the top element in your oven.

Outdoors, true broiling is rare. You’d need a dedicated broiler burner mounted in the lid of a gas grill, or one of those infrared top-down things. Most backyard cooks never use it. When you close the lid on a grill, you’re not broiling — you’re roasting with reflected heat. Still heat from below.

If someone tells you to “broil” burgers on a charcoal kettle, they mean keep the lid off and let the direct heat from below char the top? No. That doesn’t work. Char is from the fire under the grate. Flip the burger.

So for outdoor cooking: unless you’ve got a special lid-mounted burner, you are grilling. Don’t overthink it.

If the heat’s below, it’s grilling. If it’s above, it’s broiling. Outdoors, that second one is nearly always indoors.