More and more, development teams are adopting an API-first approach to software development, in which APIs are the building blocks of software and everything else is built around them. This is in contrast to code-first, where the full application — including the API, UI, and other components — is planned out together at the same time.
According to Postman’s 2024 State of the API report, 74% of respondents followed the API-first approach in 2024, compared to 66% last year. “APIs are no longer an afterthought but the foundation of development, with between 26 and 50 APIs powering the average application,” Postman wrote in the report.
The benefits of this strategy include faster API production and faster recovery from failures. This year, 63% of respondents were able to produce an API within one week (up from 47% last year). Additionally, organizations following this approach can typically recover from API failures in under an hour.
“By prioritizing API design, governance, and security, teams can unlock new opportunities, deliver APIs faster, and ensure their APIs are protected and optimized for the future,” Postman said.
While there are many benefits to API-first, it doesn’t entirely eliminate the challenges API developers face, such as poor documentation and lack of proper collaboration.
Thirty-nine percent of respondents claim inconsistent documentation is the biggest roadblock to API development. Forty-four percent read through source code to understand their APIs, but over half collaborate with people who don’t understand the code, like product managers, quality assurance, and designers. Forty-three percent also struggle with getting information from other developers who may be working asynchronously in different time zones.
The report also found that one third of respondents are using multiple gateways for their APIs, signaling that “the traditional single-gateway model is becoming obsolete.”
Another positive finding is that 62% of respondents are generating income from their APIs, and 33% report that APIs make up over 50% of their total revenue.
“APIs are no longer just technical enablers—they are revenue-generating products … This signals the rise of the API-as-a-product model, where APIs are designed, developed, and marketed as strategic assets,” the report stated.
And finally AI is resulting in increased API usage as well, with AI-related traffic on Postman’s platform increasing by 73% in the last year. Companies are now having to create APIs not just for humans, but for interfacing with AI systems as well.
“The age of AI is powered by APIs. The rapid adoption of chatbots like ChatGPT has proven that AI bots are going to advance the state of human-computer interaction. Until now, we have primarily been designing APIs for humans, but designing APIs for machines will become an increasingly important area… and AI alone won’t boost productivity—you need quality APIs to stay ahead in modern software,” the report concluded.
For its survey, Postman surveyed more than 5,600 developers and API professionals, and made observations based on the activity of the 35 million+ users on its platform.