- Introduction
- Installing and updating
- Navigating Postman
- Sending your first request
- Managing your account
- Syncing your work
- Discovering templates
- Creating your first collection
- Creating a workspace
- Setting up your Postman app
- Importing and exporting data
- Troubleshooting app issues
- Building requests
- Authorizing requests
- Receiving responses
- Grouping requests in collections
- Using variables
- Managing environments
- Visualizing responses
- Specifying examples
- Using cookies
- Working with certificates
- Generating client code
- Troubleshooting requests
- Using the Collection Runner
- Scheduling runs with monitors
- Building request workflows
- Importing data files
- Working with your team
- Defining roles
- Requesting access
- Sharing your work
- Your Private API Network
- Commenting on collections
- Versioning APIs
- Using version control
- Using the API Builder
- Managing and sharing APIs
- Validating APIs
- Monitoring your APIs
- Setting up a monitor
- Viewing monitor results
- Monitoring APIs and websites
- Set up integrations to receive alerts
- Running Postman monitors using static IPs
- Troubleshooting monitors
- Monitoring FAQs
- Analyzing with reports
- Documenting your API
- Authoring your docs
- Publishing your docs
- Viewing documentation
- Using custom domains
- Publishing templates
- Publishing to the API Network
- Submission guidelines
- Managing your team
- Purchasing Postman
- Billing
- Configuring team settings
- Utilizing audit logs
- Onboarding checklist
- Migrating data between teams
- Intro to SSO
- Configuring SSO for a team
- Logging in to an SSO team
- Microsoft AD FS
- Custom SAML in Azure AD
- Custom SAML in Duo
- Custom SAML in GSuite
- Custom SAML in Okta
- Custom SAML in Onelogin
- Custom SAML in Ping Identity
- Migrating to the current version of Postman
Receiving responses
The Postman response viewer helps to ensure the correctness of API responses. An API response consists of the body, headers, and the status code. Postman organizes body and headers in different tabs. The status code and the completion time of the API call is visible next to the tabs.
The response also contains the HTTP specification default description. However, API authors can also add custom messages.
Saving responses
If a request has been saved in a collection, you can save responses for that request. Once the response has been returned, click the Save Response button. Enter a name to call your saved response. All responses saved for a request will be available as an example whenever you load the request. Click the Examples dropdown in the top right to view and select the saved examples.
Viewing responses
The Postman Body tab gives you several tools to help you understand the response quickly. You can view the body in one of three views - pretty, raw, and preview.
Pretty
The pretty mode formats JSON or XML responses so they are easier to view. Nobody wants to scroll through a minified single line JSON response looking for that elusive string! Links inside the pretty mode are highlighted and clicking on them can load a GET request in Postman with the link URL. For navigating large responses, click on the down-pointing triangles (▼) on the left to collapse large sections of the response.
For Postman to automatically format the body, make sure the appropriate Content-Type header is returned. If not, you can force formatting through JSON or XML. You can force JSON formatting under the General tab in the SETTINGS modal. To do so. select "JSON" from the "Language detection" dropdown.
Finding items in responses: You can use CMD/CTRL + F to open the search bar, and CMD/CTRL + G to scroll through results.
Raw
The raw view is a large text area with the response body. It can indicate whether your response is minified.
Preview
The preview tab renders the response in a sandboxed iframe. Some web frameworks by default return HTML errors and the preview mode is especially helpful. Due to iframe sandbox restrictions, JavaScript and images are disabled in the iframe.
You can maximize the body to occupy the whole Postman window. Use this view if you plan to work with the response for an extended period of time.
If your API endpoint returns an image, Postman will detect and render it automatically. For binary response types, you should select “Send and download” which will let you save the response to your hard disk. You can then view it using the appropriate viewer. This gives you the flexibility to test audio files, PDFs, zip files, or anything that the API throws at you.
Headers
Headers are displayed as key-value pairs under the Headers tab. Hovering over the header name can give you a description of the header according to the HTTP spec. If you are sending a HEAD request, Postman will show the headers tab by default.
Network information
Postman will display network data when your API returns a response.
Hover over the globe icon to see the local and remote IP addresses for the request you sent.
When you make https
requests, the Network information will display a padlock and will include detail of any certificate verification.
If you have SSL verification enabled in the global settings and verification fails, Postman will indicate the error in the response area. Click the link to disable verification globally and immediately run the request again. If SSL is disabled globally but enabled for your request, you will see the error and a link to open the console.

Note that if you click Disable SSL Verification you will need to turn it back on if you want to verify certificates for future requests. To enable it globally, open Settings (wrench button at the top left of Postman) and use the switch in the General section. To enable it just for the current request, use the request Settings tab.
If you have SSL verification turned off and your request returns a certificate verification error, you will see the detail in the Network information pop-up.

For requests that return data successfully but with a certificate verification failure, the console will display a warning.
Response time
Postman automatically calculates the time it took for the response to arrive from the server. This is useful for some preliminary testing for performance.
Response size
Postman breaks down the response size into body and headers. The response sizes are approximate.
Cookies
Cookies sent by the server are visible in a dedicated tab. To manage cookies in Postman the native apps, use the MANAGE COOKIES modal. If you're working in the Postman Chrome app, you can use the Interceptor extension to help manage cookies.
Tests
You can also see the results of the tests that were run against the request. Learn more about testing in Postman.