Install Postman

To get the latest version of the Postman desktop app, visit the Download Postman page and select the option for your operating system. Postman is available as a native desktop app for Windows (Intel 64-bit or ARM 64-bit), macOS (Intel or Apple silicon), and Linux (Intel 64-bit or ARM 64-bit).

Postman is also available as a web app. You can use the Postman web app to carry out many of your API development and testing tasks in your web browser. Keep in mind that some features aren’t supported when using the Postman web app, so use the Postman desktop app for the full Postman experience.

Install Postman on Windows

To install Postman on Windows, do the following:

1. Download the latest Postman version.
2. Select and run the .exe file to install Postman.

Install Postman on Mac

To install Postman on Mac, do the following:

1. Download the latest Postman version.
2. If your browser downloads the file as a ZIP file, find the file in the Downloads folder and unzip it.
3. In the Downloads folder, open the Postman file to install it.
4. When prompted, move the file to your Applications folder. This ensures that future updates can be installed.

You can also install Postman using the Homebrew package manager:

brew install --cask postman

Install Postman on Linux

You can install Postman on Linux from the Snap store page or by using the snap install postman command. If installing from the command line, first ensure that you’re set up for snaps. Alternatively, you can download the latest version of Postman and unpack the file using the tar zxf linux_64 command.

Create a Linux launcher icon

To start the app from a launcher icon, install the desktop file, located in the bundle, into an applications subdirectory of a path contained in $XDG_DATA_DIRS (for example, ~/.local/share/applications/):

$
install -t ~/.local/share/applications/ /</path/to/file>/Postman/app/resources/Postman.desktop

Enter the following content in the file, replacing </path/to/file> with the location of the file, then save it:

$
[Desktop Entry]
$
Encoding=UTF-8
$
Name=Postman
$
Exec=</path/to/file>/Postman/app/Postman %U
$
Icon=</path/to/file>/Postman/app/resources/app/assets/icon.png
$
Terminal=false
$
Type=Application
$
Categories=Development;

Additional requirements for installation on Linux

When installing Postman on Linux:

• Don’t start Postman with the sudo command. If you do, files created by Postman will have permissions issues.
• Ensure you have read/write permission for the ~/.config folder. This is where Postman stores information.
• Ensure that you’ve installed openssl on your machine.
• On Ubuntu 18, install the libgconf-2-4 package with the apt-get install libgconf-2-4 command.

Use the Postman web app

You can use Postman in your web browser to complete your API development and testing tasks with the Postman Agents.

Install the Postman Desktop Agent

If you’re using the Postman web app, Postman recommends downloading and installing the Postman Desktop Agent, an application that runs locally on your desktop. The Desktop Agent overcomes the cross-origin resource sharing (CORS) limitations of browsers and acts as your agent for making API requests from the Postman web app.

Web limitations

The following features require the Postman desktop app and aren’t available when using the Postman web app:

• Find and replace - The Postman desktop app supports finding and replacing values in a workspace, but this feature isn’t available in the Postman web app.
• Proxy configuration - The Postman desktop app enables you to use your system’s configured proxy to send API requests or access the internet. In the Postman web app, you can configure a proxy for sending requests but not for connecting to online services.
• Request and cookie capture - Interceptor and the Postman proxy enable you to capture traffic and syncs cookies from your browser or client apps to the Postman desktop app. It’s not possible to use Interceptor or the Postman proxy with the Postman web app.
• Collection run export - You can export the results of a collection run to a JSON file using the Postman desktop app. This feature isn’t available in the Postman web app.
• Performance testing - You can use the Postman desktop app to simulate user traffic, so you can observe how your API behaves under load. Performance testing isn’t available for the Postman web app.
• Postman Vault - You can use the Postman desktop app to send requests with vault secrets that are stored in your Postman Vault. If you’re using the Postman web app, use the Desktop or Browser Agent to send requests with vault secrets, depending on which is best suited for your request.
• Lightweight Postman API Client - You can use the lightweight API Client to send requests from the Postman desktop app when you aren’t signed in to Postman.
• Terminal - The Postman desktop app supports a built-in terminal with Native Git that lets you run command-line operations in Postman.

Install the Postman CLI

The Postman CLI is a secure command-line companion for Postman. Run, test, and validate your APIs from the command line to keep quality checks fast and seamless in your workflow.

To learn more about how to install and use the Postman CLI, see Install the Postman CLI.

Use the Postman VS Code extension

You can use the Postman VS Code extension to test and collaborate on your APIs in the same application you’re using to develop. With the VS Code extension, you can send API requests, manage collections and environments, troubleshoot requests, and more, directly from VS Code. Learn how to install the VS Code extension.

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