Consume public APIs from the Postman API Network

Before you consume a public API, learn how to choose one from a verified team. A public API from a verified team offers you the best developer experience. You can then fork their elements to your own workspace and use them there. Remember to watch elements to get notified when there's a change.

Choose public elements

Postman recommends you choose a public API from a verified team. You can identify a verified team by its verification badge . If Postman verifies a team, it means Postman confirmed the following:

• The team owns the API and its services.
• The team actively maintains its public workspaces, and documents its collections well.
• The team's public APIs offer Guided Auth, which offers you the best developer experience.

It's safe to choose a public API from a non-verified team. If you choose an API from such a team, Postman recommends you go to the company's official website and review their official documentation. Then, compare their official URLs to the URLs they use in their public workspaces.

If a team isn't verified, it may mean the team isn't active in Postman, their collections aren't well-documented, or their verification is pending.

To learn more about the verification process, see Verify your team for the Postman API Network.

Use public elements

If you've not used Postman before or would like to get to your first 200 OK response quickly, use the Start here wizard in the request Overview tab. The wizard steps you through the requirements needed to send your request. The options vary depending on the API's auth type, variables, and request method.

Start by adding your authorization. Whether you use Guided Auth or another method to authenticate, Postman recommends you store your authentication credentials in Postman Vault.

Next, add your variables, params, and headers. If the API has environment variables for the collection you're interested in, for example, variables for a development environment, you can select them from the environment selector in the top right of the request.

If you've selected a POST, POST, or PATCH request, the wizard also features a step to populate the content of the request body.

All wizard options link to the relevant parts of the request, so you don't have to waste time looking for them.

When you're ready, click Send to get a test response.

Once you've chosen a public API, Postman recommends you get started by forking one of the team's collections. Verified teams walk you through the process with great documentation. If you prefer, you can create the request yourself.

Similarly, you can copy a flow or create the flow yourself.

Subscribe to receive updates through team channels

You can receive updates to public workspaces and collections through Slack. To receive updates in your Slack channel, click Connect in the workspace overview.

You can also interact with an update from a Slack message. To learn more, see Respond to a workspace update.

Watch public elements

You can watch public workspaces and collections to get notified about changes. To watch a workspace or collection, in the upper-right corner, select Watch.

To learn more, see Watch a workspace or Watch a collection.