Infrared-visible sum frequency generation (SFG) is a surface-specific vibrational spectroscopy that can operate in a pressure range from ultrahigh vacuum (uhv) to atmospheric pressures. SFG is therefore one of the few surface science techniques that permits atomic scale monitoring of surface species during catalytic reactions at high pressures (around 1 atm) and high temperatures. Using single-crystal surfaces of transition metals, platinum and rhodium, reaction rates can be simultaneously determined by gas chromatography, and correlations between the concentration of adsorbates under reaction conditions and the observed turnover numbers can help to elucidate the reaction mechanism. To bridge the gap to traditional surface science experiments, SFG is also employed under uhv or low pressures. The technique has been successfully applied to the adsorption and oxidation of CO, hydrocarbon conversion such as ethylene hydrogenation and cyclohexene hydrogenation and dehydrogenation on Pt(111). The experiments demonstrate that the key intermediates of high-pressure catalytic reactions are not present under low-pressure (uhv) conditions. Furthermore, the identification of active intermediates and their concentration at ambient conditions allows calculation of turnover frequencies per active surface species rather than simply per surface metal atom.