Sending your first request

Postman makes it easy to create and send API requests. Send a request to test a endpoint, retrieve data from a data source, or try out an API's functionality. You don't need to enter commands in a terminal or write any code. Simply create a new request and select Send, and the API response appears right inside Postman.

What is an API request?

APIs provide a structured way for one application to access the capabilities of another application. Typically, this communication happens over the internet by way of an API server. A client application (like a mobile app) sends a request to the server, and after the request is processed the server returns a response to the client.

A request includes the URL of the API endpoint as well as an HTTP request method. The method indicates the type of action you are asking the API to perform. Here are some of the most common methods:

• GET retrieves data from an API.
• POST sends new data to an API.
• PATCH and PUT update existing data.
• DELETE removes existing data.

Sending a request

Ready to send your first request? Open Postman and try the following:

1. Select the + button (near the top of Postman) to open a new tab.
2. Enter postman-echo.com/get for the request URL.
3. Select Send.

You will see the response data sent from the server in the lower pane.

What just happened?

In this example, Postman is acting as the client application and is communicating with an API server. Here's what happened when you selected Send:

1. Postman sent a GET request to the Postman Echo API server located at postman-echo.com.
2. The API server received the request, processed it, and returned a response to Postman.
3. Postman received the response and displayed it in the Response pane.

You just used Postman to send an API request and got a response from the API server. It's okay to take a moment to sit back and reflect on how cool that is!

Next steps

Send some more requests to the Postman Echo API, a handy tool you can use to try out API requests in Postman.

When you're ready, learn more about building and sending requests in Postman.