Set up a collection-based monitor in Postman

Create a new collection-based monitor to continuously check your API's health, run test suites, or validate critical workflows. When creating a monitor, you select a collection with the requests you want to run and set a schedule for how often Postman runs the collection.

Other configuration options enable you to tailor the monitor to your specific API development workflow. You can also upload a data file with sets of values to use as variable inputs when running the monitor.

You can also schedule collection runs using the Collection Runner. Monitors are typically used to schedule runs when you want to set up alerts like triggering on-call upon failure. Choose the Collection Runner to schedule runs for automating API tests and other use cases. Learn more about Scheduling collection runs.

Creating a collection-based monitor

You can create a new monitor from scratch or select a collection to monitor:

• To create a monitor from scratch, select Monitors in the sidebar, and then select +. You will select a collection to run when configuring the new monitor.

  

• To create a monitor from a collection, select Collections in the sidebar. Select the more actions icon next to a collection and select Monitor collection. The new monitor is automatically configured to run the selected collection.

  

You can also create a monitor using the Postman API. To learn how, see the Postman API documentation.

Configuring a collection-based monitor

Give your new monitor a Monitor name and select the Collection you want the monitor to run. Depending on the method you chose to create the monitor, the collection might already be selected.

If the collection has multiple tags, select the Collection tag to use. (You can no longer create release tags for collections in Postman v10, but you can publish versions of an API.) You can also add an Environment if you would like the monitor to use one.

See the following sections for other configuration options you can select for your monitor. When you're finished, select Create Monitor to create the new monitor.

Because monitors run in the Postman cloud, they don't support requests that use files in your local working directory to send body data. Instead, upload your test data files to make them available for monitors in the cloud.

Postman maintains limits on various team and user actions, including monitor creation. For more information, see Monitor activity limits.

Uploading a data file

You can upload a data file to pass Postman sets of values to use during a monitor run. Postman will substitute the values for variables in requests or scripts in the monitored collection. By uploading a data file, you can run your tests with multiple sets of values within a single monitor run.

To learn more about uploading data files and attaching files to monitors, see the Monitor FAQs.

Data files can be in CSV or JSON format and must use the following structure:

• CSV - The first row of the file must contain the variable names, one variable per column. Each following row is considered a data row, with values for each variable. Make sure all rows have the same number of columns and use a UNIX format line ending. Postman will iterate through the data rows, running the monitored collection once for each data row in the file.

• JSON - The file must be formatted as an array of objects containing the key-value pairs you want to use as variables. For each pair, the key corresponds to a variable name, and the value will be used for that variable when running the monitored collection.

To upload a data file, select Select File to locate and open your CSV or JSON file. Postman will use the data file when running your monitor. Data files are limited to 1 MB in size and a maximum of 50 data rows (CSV) or 50 objects (JSON).

How do I use data variables in requests and scripts? In requests (URLs, parameters, headers, authorization, and body), use double curly braces around your variable name, for example: {{variable}}. In pre-request scripts and test scripts, use pm.iterationData to access and manipulate variables. Learn more about using variables and using pm.iterationData methods.

Scheduling monitors

Under Run this monitor, specify how often Postman will run the selected collection. This could be as often as every five minutes for a status page, or a basic check once a week on your endpoints.

Scheduling options are limited by plan type. If you are on a paid plan, you can schedule monitors to run as often as every five minutes. If you are on a free plan, you can schedule monitors to run as often as every hour.

How often your monitors run affects your monthly monitor usage. Learn more about usage limits and overages.

Adding regions

Postman can automatically select a region where your monitor will run, or you can manually select one or more regions. This is helpful if you want to monitor API health or performance across multiple geographic regions.

Servers in each selected region will run the monitor according to your schedule, counting towards your monitor usage.

Using static IPs

Static IPs are available on Postman Professional and Enterprise plans when you manually select a region. This option enables you to securely monitor private APIs using a direct channel to Postman. Learn how you can monitor using static IPs.

Getting monitor notifications

When configuring a monitor, you can choose to receive email notifications for monitor run failures and errors. You can add up to five email recipients to receive notifications.

Postman will send an email notification each time the monitor fails. By default, Postman will stop sending failure notifications after 3 consecutive failures. You can specify a different value if you want Postman to send more or fewer emails when a monitor fails.

Once the monitor run is successful, Postman will send an email notification to let you know the monitor has recovered. Note that if the number of monitor failures is less than the consecutive failure limit, you won't get a recovery email when the monitor is successful.

You will receive daily and weekly summaries of your active monitors by email. If you want to opt out of daily or weekly summaries, select the notifications icon in the Postman header and select Manage Preferences.

Using retry on failure

To run a monitor again after a failure or error, select the Retry if run fails option. If this option is enabled, Postman will automatically run the failed request again. This can help to avoid false alarms due to transient issues. Postman will log the initial failure and will alert you if the run continues to fail.

Enabling this option may affect your monitor usage. For example, if a collection of three requests fails on the first request, but is successful on retrying, the run will count as four total requests.

Adding request timeouts

You can choose to Set request timeout if you'd like to make sure all of your requests run within a certain amount of time. By default, each monitor run has a timeout of 10 minutes (Postman Free plans) or 15 minutes (Postman paid plans). These timeout values apply to the entire monitor run, including all HTTP requests, responses, pre-request scripts, and test scripts.

For Postman Free plans, monitor timeout can't exceed 10 minutes (600000 ms). For Postman paid plans, monitor timeout can't exceed 15 minutes (900000 ms)

Adding delays between requests

Enabling Set delay between requests will insert a delay between all requests in your collection. To configure the delay for individual requests, you can add a delay in your pre-request or test scripts using setTimeout().

For Postman Free plans, the delay between requests can't exceed 10 minutes (600000 ms). For Postman paid plans, the delay between requests can't exceed 15 minutes (900000 ms). Note that these values are the same as the maximum runtime for a monitor.

Managing redirect behavior

Select Follow redirects to enable URL redirection for requests run by the monitor.

Disabling SSL validation

The Enable SSL validation option is selected by default. You can turn off SSL validation if you are using self-signed certificates and want to stop validations of SSL certificates. For more information, see Working with certificates and How to Troubleshoot SSL Certificate & Server Connection Issues.

Working with collection-based monitors

To work with a monitor, select Monitors in the sidebar and then select a monitor to view its dashboard. From here you can take the following actions:

• Run a monitor - A monitor runs automatically at set intervals, determined by the run schedule you select when configuring the monitor. To run a monitor manually at any time, select Run.

• Refresh the dashboard - To make sure you're viewing the latest monitor results, select Refresh.

• Pause a monitor - While paused, the monitor no longer makes calls to the specified URL. To pause a monitor, select the more actions icon and select Pause. To resume the monitor, select the more actions icon again and select Resume.

• Edit a monitor - Edit an existing monitor to update the name, collection, or any other configuration options. Select the more actions icon and select Edit. Change any configuration options, and then select Update Monitor.

  You can rename a monitor without editing it. Select Monitors in the sidebar, select the more actions icon next to a monitor, and then select Rename.

• Delete a monitor - Delete a monitor if it's no longer needed. Select the more actions icon and select Delete.

Next steps

After creating a collection-based monitor, you can view your monitor results and set up integrations to send monitor data to other platforms:

• To learn how to view the results of your collection-based monitors for detailed information about monitor runs, visit Viewing collection-based monitor results.
• To learn how to set up integrations to send monitor data and notifications to other platforms, visit Integrating with Postman.