Is Postman Down? How to Check Postman Status in Real-Time

Is Postman Down? How to Check Postman Status in Real-Time

Quick Answer: To check if Postman is down, visit apistatuscheck.com/api/postman for real-time monitoring, or check the official status.postman.com page. Common signs include workspace sync failures, collection runner timeouts, mock server unavailability, cloud sync errors, and team collaboration issues.

When your API testing workflow suddenly grinds to halt, every minute matters. Postman serves over 30 million developers worldwide as the go-to platform for API development, testing, and collaboration. Whether you're seeing cloud sync errors, collection runner failures, or workspace access issues, quickly determining if Postman's infrastructure is experiencing problems can save you hours of unnecessary troubleshooting and help you pivot to alternative testing strategies.

How to Check Postman Status in Real-Time

1. API Status Check (Fastest Method)

The quickest way to verify Postman's operational status is through apistatuscheck.com/api/postman. This real-time monitoring service:

  • Tests actual API endpoints every 60 seconds
  • Shows response times and latency trends
  • Tracks historical uptime over 30/60/90 days
  • Provides instant alerts when issues are detected
  • Monitors multiple services (API, Cloud Sync, Mock Servers, Workspaces)

Unlike status pages that rely on manual updates, API Status Check performs active health checks against Postman's production services, giving you the most accurate real-time picture of platform availability.

2. Official Postman Status Page

Postman maintains status.postman.com as their official communication channel for service incidents. The page displays:

  • Current operational status for all platform components
  • Active incidents and investigations
  • Scheduled maintenance windows
  • Historical incident reports
  • Component-specific status (Postman API, Cloud Sync, Mock Servers, Monitors, Workspaces, Team Library)

Pro tip: Subscribe to status updates via email, SMS, or RSS feed on the status page to receive immediate notifications when incidents occur.

3. Check Postman Application Status Indicator

The Postman desktop and web applications include a built-in connection status indicator:

  • Green dot: Connected to Postman cloud services
  • Yellow dot: Degraded performance or intermittent connectivity
  • Red dot: Cannot connect to Postman services
  • Offline mode: Working with local collections only

Look for this indicator in the bottom-left corner of the Postman interface. If it shows anything other than green, Postman's cloud services may be experiencing issues.

4. Test Cloud Sync Manually

Try syncing a collection or workspace to verify cloud connectivity:

  1. Make a minor change to any collection (add a comment or rename a request)
  2. Watch for the sync indicator in the sidebar
  3. Check if changes appear in the web version at web.postman.co
  4. Try accessing the same workspace from another device

If sync fails or takes longer than 10-30 seconds, cloud services are likely degraded.

5. Verify API Access with Direct Testing

For developers, testing Postman's public API can quickly confirm service health:

curl -X GET \
  https://api.getpostman.com/me \
  -H 'X-Api-Key: YOUR_POSTMAN_API_KEY'

A successful response confirms Postman's API infrastructure is operational. Timeouts, 500-series errors, or connection failures indicate platform issues.

Common Postman Issues and How to Identify Them

Cloud Sync Failures

Symptoms:

  • Collections not syncing across devices
  • "Sync Error" messages in the sidebar
  • Changes made on one device not appearing on others
  • Persistent "Syncing..." status that never completes
  • Error messages: "Unable to sync with Postman Cloud"

What it means: When Postman's cloud synchronization service is degraded, your local changes won't propagate to team members or other devices. This is one of the most common issues during partial outages, as it affects Postman's distributed architecture while the local application continues functioning.

Impact severity: High for teams, moderate for individual users with multiple devices.

Workspace Access Errors

Common error messages during outages:

  • "Unable to load workspace"
  • "Workspace not found" (for workspaces that exist)
  • "You don't have permission to access this workspace" (incorrectly)
  • Infinite loading when switching workspaces
  • 403 Forbidden or 500 Internal Server errors

What causes this: Workspace data is stored in Postman's cloud database. When authentication services or workspace API endpoints are down, even valid credentials can't retrieve workspace information.

Workaround: Switch to local-only mode or work with previously cached collections until service is restored.

API Testing Timeouts and Request Failures

Indicators:

  • Requests that normally succeed timing out
  • "Could not get response" errors for working endpoints
  • Proxy configuration errors appearing suddenly
  • Certificate validation failures
  • Newman CLI hanging during collection runs

Distinguish from target API issues:

# Test the same endpoint with curl
curl -X GET https://your-api.com/endpoint

# If curl succeeds but Postman fails, the issue is likely Postman-side

During Postman infrastructure issues, you may see proxy-related errors even when not using a proxy, or SSL/TLS errors for endpoints that worked moments before.

Collection Runner Problems

Signs the Collection Runner is affected:

  • Collections failing to start running
  • Runs stopping mid-execution without error messages
  • Results not saving or displaying
  • Scheduled monitor runs missing or delayed
  • Error: "Collection Runner is temporarily unavailable"

What's happening: The Collection Runner depends on Postman's execution infrastructure. When these services are degraded:

  • Local runs may still work but take longer
  • Cloud-based monitor runs fail completely
  • Results can't be uploaded to Postman Cloud
  • Team run history becomes unavailable

Mock Server Unavailability

Symptoms:

  • Mock server URLs returning 502/503/504 errors
  • Timeouts when hitting mock endpoints
  • "Mock server not found" errors for existing mocks
  • Unable to create new mock servers
  • Mock server dashboard not loading

Testing mock server status:

# Test your mock server
curl https://YOUR-MOCK-ID.mock.pstmn.io/endpoint

# Expected during outage:
# 502 Bad Gateway
# 503 Service Unavailable
# Connection timeout

Business impact: If your frontend development depends on mock servers for API responses, your entire development workflow halts when mocks go down.

Team Collaboration and Sharing Issues

Indicators:

  • Unable to share collections with team members
  • Invitations not sending or arriving
  • Comments and annotations not syncing
  • Team Library not loading
  • Role and permission changes not applying
  • Activity feed not updating

What this breaks:

  • Real-time collaboration on API designs
  • Code review workflows using Postman comments
  • Onboarding new team members
  • Sharing API documentation with stakeholders

The Real Impact When Postman Goes Down

Halted API Development Workflows

Postman is deeply integrated into modern API development:

  • Backend developers: Cannot test new endpoints or debug API issues
  • Frontend teams: Lose access to mock servers blocking UI development
  • QA teams: API test automation fails, delaying release cycles
  • Product managers: Cannot review API documentation or test flows

For a development team of 10 engineers at $100/hour, a 2-hour Postman outage represents $2,000 in lost productivity—and that's just the immediate cost.

Broken CI/CD Integration

Postman is frequently embedded in continuous integration pipelines:

Common CI/CD integrations affected:

  • Newman CLI runs in GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins
  • Automated API testing before deployments
  • Contract testing between services
  • Regression test suites

Example: Failed CI/CD pipeline

# GitHub Actions workflow that breaks during outage
- name: Run API Tests
  run: |
    newman run https://api.getpostman.com/collections/$COLLECTION_ID \
      --api-key $POSTMAN_API_KEY
    # ^ This fails when Postman API is down

Consequences:

  • Deployments blocked due to failed test gates
  • Manual workarounds required, bypassing safety checks
  • Release schedules delayed
  • Team scrambling to export collections locally

Team Collaboration Breakdown

Modern API development is collaborative, and Postman facilitates this:

What breaks during outages:

  • Design reviews: Team members can't access shared workspaces to review API designs
  • Pair programming: Developers can't share collections in real-time
  • Documentation: Auto-generated API docs become unavailable
  • Knowledge sharing: New team members can't access onboarding collections

Real scenario: A remote team spread across time zones loses their primary async collaboration tool. The 3 PM design review with stakeholders gets canceled because nobody can access the shared workspace.

Lost Documentation and Testing History

Postman serves as a living documentation system:

  • API documentation: Auto-generated from collections
  • Test history: Monitors track API health over time
  • Examples and use cases: Saved responses show expected behavior
  • Team knowledge base: Collections encode institutional knowledge

When Postman goes down:

  • External stakeholders can't access published API documentation
  • Historical test results become unavailable for debugging
  • Compliance and audit trails are interrupted
  • New team members lack access to learning resources

Newman CLI and Automation Failures

Newman, Postman's CLI tool, powers automation workflows:

Common failures during Postman outages:

# Attempting to run a cloud collection
$ newman run https://api.getpostman.com/collections/12345?apikey=XXX
# Result: Connection timeout or 500 error

# Attempting to use Postman API for automation
$ curl -X POST https://api.getpostman.com/collections \
  -H "X-Api-Key: $API_KEY" \
  -d @collection.json
# Result: 503 Service Unavailable

Automation workflows affected:

  • Scheduled test runs
  • Load testing scenarios
  • Data generation scripts
  • Integration with monitoring tools (Datadog, New Relic, PagerDuty)

What to Do When Postman Goes Down

1. Switch to Local-Only Mode Immediately

Postman can function without cloud connectivity by working with locally cached data:

Enable offline mode:

  1. Click the profile icon in top-right corner
  2. Select "Sign Out" or work in offline mode
  3. Use collections already synced to your local machine
  4. Export critical collections as backup

Export collections for safety:

# Via Postman UI: Collection → ... → Export → Collection v2.1

# Or backup all collections with Postman API (while it's working):
curl -X GET https://api.getpostman.com/collections \
  -H "X-Api-Key: $API_KEY" | jq -r '.collections[] | .uid' | \
  while read id; do
    curl -X GET "https://api.getpostman.com/collections/$id" \
      -H "X-Api-Key: $API_KEY" > "backup_$id.json"
  done

2. Use Newman CLI with Local Collections

Newman can run collections without cloud connectivity:

# Export your collection to a local file
# Then run with Newman using the local file
newman run ./my-collection.json \
  --environment ./environment.json \
  --reporters cli,json \
  --reporter-json-export results.json

# For CI/CD, commit collections to your repo
# .github/workflows/api-tests.yml
- name: Run API Tests (Offline)
  run: |
    npm install -g newman
    newman run ./postman/collections/api-tests.json \
      --environment ./postman/environments/staging.json

Advantages:

  • No dependency on Postman cloud services
  • Faster execution (no network overhead)
  • Version-controlled collections
  • Works in air-gapped environments

Set up local Newman workflows now:

# Install Newman globally
npm install -g newman

# Export your critical collections
# Run them locally to verify they work offline
newman run exported-collection.json

# Add to package.json for team use
{
  "scripts": {
    "test:api": "newman run postman/api-tests.json",
    "test:integration": "newman run postman/integration-tests.json"
  }
}

3. Alternative API Testing Tools (Emergency Fallbacks)

When Postman is down, these alternatives can keep you moving:

Quick alternatives:

Insomnia (Lightweight Postman alternative)

# Install via brew (macOS)
brew install --cask insomnia

# Or download from https://insomnia.rest/
  • Import Postman collections (File → Import Data → Postman)
  • Similar UI to Postman
  • Works offline by default

HTTPie (Command-line HTTP client)

# Install HTTPie
pip install httpie

# Make requests with clean syntax
http POST https://api.example.com/users \
  name="John Doe" \
  email="john@example.com" \
  Authorization:"Bearer YOUR_TOKEN"

# Pretty-printed JSON responses
# Syntax highlighting built-in

cURL (Universal fallback)

# The tool that's always available
curl -X POST https://api.example.com/users \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -d '{"name":"John Doe","email":"john@example.com"}' \
  | jq '.'  # Pretty-print with jq

REST Client (VS Code Extension)

# Install in VS Code
code --install-extension humao.rest-client

# Create a .http file:
# api-tests.http
POST https://api.example.com/users
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer {{token}}

{
  "name": "John Doe",
  "email": "john@example.com"
}

# Click "Send Request" above the request

4. Implement Resilient CI/CD with Fallback Strategies

Design your CI/CD pipelines to handle Postman outages gracefully:

Option 1: Commit collections to version control

# .github/workflows/api-tests.yml
name: API Tests

on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      
      # Primary: Try to fetch latest from Postman API
      - name: Fetch Latest Collection
        id: fetch
        continue-on-error: true
        run: |
          curl -X GET \
            "https://api.getpostman.com/collections/${{ secrets.COLLECTION_ID }}" \
            -H "X-Api-Key: ${{ secrets.POSTMAN_API_KEY }}" \
            -o collection.json
      
      # Fallback: Use committed version if API fails
      - name: Use Committed Collection
        if: steps.fetch.outcome == 'failure'
        run: |
          echo "Postman API unavailable, using committed collection"
          cp .postman/collections/api-tests.json collection.json
      
      - name: Run Tests
        run: |
          npm install -g newman
          newman run collection.json \
            --environment .postman/environments/ci.json

Option 2: Cache collections with TTL

// fetch-collection.js - Smart caching script
const fs = require('fs');
const axios = require('axios');

const CACHE_FILE = './cached-collection.json';
const CACHE_MAX_AGE = 3600000; // 1 hour

async function getCollection() {
  // Check cache freshness
  if (fs.existsSync(CACHE_FILE)) {
    const stats = fs.statSync(CACHE_FILE);
    const age = Date.now() - stats.mtimeMs;
    
    if (age < CACHE_MAX_AGE) {
      console.log('Using cached collection');
      return JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(CACHE_FILE));
    }
  }
  
  try {
    // Try to fetch fresh collection
    const response = await axios.get(
      `https://api.getpostman.com/collections/${process.env.COLLECTION_ID}`,
      { headers: { 'X-Api-Key': process.env.POSTMAN_API_KEY } }
    );
    
    // Update cache
    fs.writeFileSync(CACHE_FILE, JSON.stringify(response.data));
    return response.data;
  } catch (error) {
    console.log('Postman API unavailable, using cached collection');
    
    if (fs.existsSync(CACHE_FILE)) {
      return JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(CACHE_FILE));
    }
    
    throw new Error('No cached collection available');
  }
}

5. Set Up Proactive Monitoring and Alerts

Don't wait for your team to discover Postman is down—monitor it actively:

Monitor Postman service health:

// postman-health-check.js
const axios = require('axios');
const { WebClient } = require('@slack/web-api');

const slack = new WebClient(process.env.SLACK_TOKEN);

async function checkPostmanHealth() {
  try {
    // Test Postman API endpoint
    await axios.get('https://api.getpostman.com/me', {
      headers: { 'X-Api-Key': process.env.POSTMAN_API_KEY },
      timeout: 10000
    });
    
    console.log('✓ Postman API is healthy');
    return true;
  } catch (error) {
    // Alert team
    await slack.chat.postMessage({
      channel: '#engineering-alerts',
      text: '🚨 Postman API health check failed',
      blocks: [
        {
          type: 'section',
          text: {
            type: 'mrkdwn',
            text: `*Postman API is unreachable*\n\nError: ${error.message}\n\n<https://apistatuscheck.com/api/postman|Check Status> | <https://status.postman.com|Official Status>`
          }
        }
      ]
    });
    
    return false;
  }
}

// Run every 5 minutes
setInterval(checkPostmanHealth, 300000);

Subscribe to multiple alert sources:

  1. API Status Check alerts - automated monitoring
  2. Postman status page notifications at status.postman.com
  3. Your own synthetic monitoring (script above)
  4. Community channels (Twitter, Reddit r/Postman)

6. Post-Outage Recovery Checklist

Once Postman services are restored:

  1. Re-enable cloud sync and verify collections are current
  2. Check for sync conflicts if you made local changes during the outage
  3. Verify team workspaces are accessible and permissions are correct
  4. Re-run failed CI/CD pipelines that failed during the outage
  5. Review mock servers to ensure they're operational
  6. Check monitor runs and manually trigger missed scheduled runs
  7. Audit collection versions to ensure no data loss occurred
  8. Update documentation with lessons learned
  9. Review and improve resilience of your Postman workflows

Sync conflict resolution:

# If you have conflicting versions:
# 1. Export your local version as backup
# 2. Let Postman sync (may auto-merge)
# 3. Review changes in version history
# 4. Manually merge if needed

# Check collection version history:
# Collection → ... → View Change Log

Related API Status Guides

When Postman is down, your entire development stack may be affected. Check these related services:

Frequently Asked Questions

How often does Postman go down?

Postman maintains strong uptime, typically 99.9%+ availability. Major incidents affecting all users are rare (2-4 times per year), though component-specific issues (like mock server degradation or sync delays) occur more frequently. Most teams experience minimal disruption, but having a contingency plan ensures you're never blocked.

What's the difference between Postman status page and API Status Check?

The official Postman status page (status.postman.com) is manually updated by Postman's operations team during incidents, which can lag behind actual issues by 5-15 minutes. API Status Check performs automated health checks every 60 seconds against live Postman endpoints, often detecting issues before they're officially reported. Use both for comprehensive awareness.

Can I use Postman completely offline?

Yes! Postman's desktop application works fully offline with locally cached collections. However, cloud features are unavailable: no sync, no team collaboration, no mock servers, and no monitor runs. To prepare for offline work, export your collections regularly and use Newman CLI for automation.

What happens to my collections if Postman shuts down?

Your collections are stored locally on your machine and can be exported at any time in JSON format. Even if Postman's cloud services became permanently unavailable, you'd retain full access to your data. Export regularly as backup: Collection → ... → Export → Collection v2.1. The exported JSON is fully compatible with Newman and other tools.

How do I run Postman tests without Postman cloud?

Use Newman CLI with exported collections:

# Export your collection from Postman UI
# Then run with Newman:
newman run my-collection.json --environment my-env.json

# Or commit collections to Git and run in CI:
newman run ./postman/collections/api-tests.json

This approach is actually faster and more reliable than cloud-based runs, as it eliminates network dependencies.

Should I use Postman monitors or my own monitoring?

Postman monitors are convenient for basic scheduled testing, but consider external monitoring (Datadog, New Relic, or custom scripts) for production-critical APIs. Why? Postman monitors depend on Postman's infrastructure—if Postman is down, your monitors won't run. Diversifying your monitoring strategy provides resilience.

What's the best way to collaborate on Postman collections without cloud sync?

Git-based workflows offer an alternative to Postman's cloud sync:

  1. Export collections and environments as JSON
  2. Commit them to your Git repository
  3. Team members import updated versions after pulling
  4. Use branches for experimental API changes
  5. Code review collection changes in pull requests

This approach provides version control, offline capability, and works even during Postman outages.

Can Postman mock servers be self-hosted?

Postman mock servers are cloud-only and cannot be self-hosted. However, you can create alternative mocks using:

  • Prism (open-source API mocking based on OpenAPI specs)
  • JSON Server (lightweight Node.js mock server)
  • WireMock (flexible API mocking library)
  • MSW (Mock Service Worker for browser/Node.js)

These alternatives give you full control and eliminate dependency on Postman's mock infrastructure.

How do I prevent Postman outages from blocking deployments?

Implement these strategies:

  1. Commit collections to version control - Never depend on live Postman API in CI/CD
  2. Use Newman with local files - Eliminate cloud dependency for automated tests
  3. Cache collection snapshots - Fallback to cached versions if API is down
  4. Make tests optional in CI - Allow manual override when Postman is unavailable
  5. Diversify testing tools - Don't rely solely on Postman for critical path testing

Example CI configuration:

- name: Run API Tests
  continue-on-error: true  # Don't block deployment
  run: newman run ./committed-collection.json

Is there a Postman outage notification service?

Yes, several options:

  • Subscribe to official updates at status.postman.com (email, SMS, RSS)
  • Enable in-app notifications in Postman settings
  • Use API Status Check for automated alerts via email, Slack, Discord, or webhook
  • Set up custom monitoring with scripts (see examples above)
  • Follow @postman and @getpostman on Twitter for incident updates

Stay Ahead of Postman Outages

Don't let API testing issues derail your development workflow. Subscribe to real-time Postman alerts and get notified instantly when issues are detected—before your team's productivity suffers.

API Status Check monitors Postman 24/7 with:

  • 60-second health checks across all platform components
  • Instant alerts via email, Slack, Discord, or webhook
  • Historical uptime tracking and incident reports
  • Multi-service monitoring for your entire development stack

Start monitoring Postman now →

Last updated: February 4, 2026. Postman status information is provided in real-time based on active monitoring. For official incident reports, always refer to status.postman.com.

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