Postman usage limits and usage-based billing are the consumption side of Postman licensing. Seats pay for people. Usage Limits cap how much of certain metered resources a team or user can consume each month, and Usage-Based Billing charges for use above those caps. The Terms of Service define Usage Limits broadly to include numbers and role types of Users, data storage, “server and monitoring requests”, integrations, “calls to the Postman API, and number of instances or credits used”.[1] The general framework is in Postman licensing.
Postman lists the metered services as API monitoring, Insights (Enterprise only), cloud performance testing, and AI and Flows usage. It describes pay-as-you-go as “available on any paid plan”.[3]
Editions
Allowances depend on the plan. The table reproduces the pricing page comparison, undated and retrieved 2026-10-02.[3]
| Resource | Free | Solo | Team | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI credits | 50 per month | 400 per month | 400 per user per month | 800 per user per month (pooled) |
| AI overage rate | Not available | $0.05 per credit | $0.04 per credit | $0.035 per credit (volume pricing available) |
| Flows credits | 25 per month | 50 per month | 100 per team per month | 500 per team per month |
| API monitoring requests (per team, per month) | 1,000 | 10,000 | 10,000 | 10,000 |
| Cloud performance testing | Not available | $0.04 per VU hour | $0.04 per VU hour | $0.04 per VU hour |
| Calls to Postman API (monthly) | 10,000 | 100,000 | 1 million | 10 million |
| Context Graph API queries | 1,000 per month, then $0.01 | 5,000 per month, then $0.01 | 5,000 per month, then $0.01 | 5,000 per month, then $0.01 |
| Integrations | Up to 5 | Up to 10 | Up to 50 | Up to 100 |
| Collection recovery | 1 day | 30 days | 90 days | 90 days |
Some former meters were removed in March 2026. Mock server usage and collection runs are now unlimited on all plans, and custom domains are included in Solo, Team and Enterprise instead of being charged by consumption.[10] Legacy plans still limit manual collection runs and performance test runs.[4]
Metrics
| Unit | Catalog row | Contractual basis |
|---|---|---|
| AI credit | AI credit | Credits “per User, per month”; pooled only on Enterprise[2] |
| Monitoring request | Monitoring request | Requests “per Team, per month”[2] |
| Flows credit | Flows credit | Per User on Free and Solo; per Team on Team and Enterprise[2] |
| Insights unit | Insights unit | Enterprise, units “per User, per month”[2] |
| VU hour | Virtual user hour | Virtual users multiplied by test duration in hours[4] |
| Postman API call | Postman API call | Monthly allowance[3] |
| Context Graph API query | Context Graph API query | Monthly allowance, then per query[3] |
The unit an allowance belongs to matters. AI credits and Insights units are allotted per user and “are not transferable between Postman Users”, except that Enterprise AI credits may be pooled. Monitoring requests are allotted per team and are not transferable between teams.[2] On Team and Enterprise, an organisation with several teams therefore has a separate monitoring and Flows allowance for each team. A user who runs out of AI credits on a Team plan cannot borrow from a colleague. Catalog proof: AI credits are per User and pooled only on Enterprise; Each request in each region counts as a monitoring call; Flows credits are allocated per Team on Team and Enterprise; PAYG off by default.
Counting / floors
AI credits
Credits are consumed each time Agent Mode performs an AI-powered action, such as generating requests, writing tests or creating documentation.[5] They renew monthly on the billing date and do not roll over.[5] Usage-Based Billing for AI credits “is enabled by default” on Solo, Team and Enterprise.[2] A Billing role can turn pay-as-you-go off for individual users; Agent Mode then pauses for those users until credits renew.[5] Postman notifies users and admins at 75% and 100% of the limit.[5] Catalog proof: Pay-as-you-go for AI credits is on by default.
Monitoring requests
Monitor usage is counted in monitoring API calls. Running one request in one region is one call, every request in a monitored collection counts, and “each request made in a different region counts as an API call”. Authorization requests also count.[7] Scheduled collection runs and Private API Monitoring draw on the same monthly limit.[4] A monitor with ten requests that runs every five minutes in two regions therefore makes about 5,760 calls a day, which uses up a 10,000-request team allowance in under two days.
On paid plans overages are allowed by default and charged pay-as-you-go. On Free, monitors pause for the rest of the period.[7] Teams can instead buy blocks of 50,000 requests, listed at “$20 per 50,000 requests / team / month”.[3] Unused calls and blocks “expire at the end of the billing period and don’t roll over”.[7] Catalog proof: Unused monitoring calls and blocks expire monthly; Monitoring requests block.
Flows credits
Flows credits are deducted when flows run, based on the block types used and where they run. Manual runs on the local canvas consume credits only for cloud-executed blocks such as AI and connector blocks. Automated runs triggered by API or MCP also consume credits for HTTP request and logic blocks.[6] Under post-March-2026 block pricing, an HTTP Request block costs 1 credit in the cloud and 0 on the local canvas, and an Integration (Connector) block costs 2 credits either way. AI Agent blocks are charged per model, for example 10 credits per run for GPT-5 or Sonnet 4.5.[6] Pay-as-you-go for Flows is off by default.[2] When enabled, extra credits cost $1 per 1,000, and Enterprise overage runs at $10 per 10,000 credits.[6] Private Flow runners are available only on Enterprise.[6]
Cloud performance testing
Cloud performance test runs consume VU hours. “Every VU hour consumed by a cloud performance test run is billed.” Pay-as-you-go is on by default, and if a Billing user turns it off the team cannot run cloud performance tests.[4] Local performance test runs are unlimited and do not use VU hours.[4] Catalog proof: Every cloud performance test VU hour is billed.
Insights
Insights is Enterprise-only. Units are included per user per month, and if Insights is enabled, Usage-Based Billing for it is on by default.[2] The pricing page does not publish the included quantity or the rate.[3]
Hard limits without pay-as-you-go
Some limits have no documented overage option. When the Postman API allowance is exhausted, requests return a “Service limit exhausted” error until the limit resets or the plan is upgraded. The same applies to Cloud Agent requests, test data storage and retrievals, and the number of integrations.[4]
Usage-Based Billing
The Usage-Based Billing program is defined in section 7.8 of the Terms of Service as “pay-as-you-go, consumption-based billing” at “the per-unit (e.g., credit, request, call) price indicated on Postman’s then-current standard Pricing page”.[1] Its mechanics:
- On or off. “Depending on the Feature, Usage-Based Billing may be turned on by default or by Customer’s Admin”. If it is off, the Feature “will be paused until the monthly allotment renews at the next cycle”.[1] Billing role members switch it per resource in the Resource usage dashboard.[8] Catalog proof: With pay-as-you-go off, the Feature pauses at the monthly limit.
- Invoicing. Fees are typically billed “on a monthly basis, in arrears, for the prior month”, or with the next renewal or Auto-Flex invoice, and are payable within 30 days.[1] Catalog proof: Usage-Based Billing is invoiced monthly in arrears.
- Free plans. On Free, a Feature always pauses at its monthly allowance.[1]
- Separate from Auto-Flex. The Auto-Flex Policy excludes “Agent Mode and all AI credits, Monitoring (and its requests), Insights (and its units), and Flows (including Flows credits)”. These follow Usage-Based Billing instead.[9] Overages of Users and seat-based add-ons go through Auto-Flex.[1]
| Feature | Pay-as-you-go default | Source |
|---|---|---|
| AI credits | On | Product Terms s.2.4[2] |
| Monitoring requests | On (paid plans) | Monitor usage guide[7] |
| Flows credits | Off | Product Terms s.4.4[2] |
| Insights units | On, when Insights is enabled | Product Terms s.5.7[2] |
| Cloud performance testing VU hours | On | Resource usage guide[4] |
For budgeting, the defaults matter more than the rates. A new paid team incurs AI, monitoring and VU-hour overage unless a Billing user turns it off. The billing guide warns that turning off monitoring overages can disrupt pipelines that depend on monitors, and suggests prepaid monitoring blocks instead.[8]
Virtualization & partitioning
Not applicable. Meters count actions (credits, requests, VU hours), not infrastructure.
Cloud / BYOL
The Flows block price list shows the AI Request block as “0 + BYOK” credits on the local canvas and “1 + BYOK” in the cloud. The block itself is metered in Flows credits, and the model is reached with the customer’s own key.[6] On AWS Marketplace purchases, monitoring calls are billed separately from the Postman plan, based on the number used each month.[11]
Out of scope
- Seats and add-on licences, covered in Postman plans, seats and add-ons.
- Negotiated Enterprise volume pricing for AI credits, Flows credits and Insights, which the pricing page refers to sales.[3]
- Usage of Fern, Orbit, Passport and Fabric, which have their own terms or Product Terms sections.