What is API latency?

API latency, the time it takes for an API to respond to a request, is crucial for maintaining a positive user experience, and its effective monitoring can prevent user churn. Although often confused with service time, latency should be measured from the client's perspective, encompassing both queue and service times. Elevated API latency can arise from network issues, server overload, inefficient code, third-party dependencies, geographic distance, and throttling. To manage this, best practices include accounting for both queue and service times, monitoring under various scenarios, setting Service Level Agreements (SLAs), testing throughout the API lifecycle, and using code profilers. The Postman API Platform, recognized as the best in API Management, provides tools to test and monitor API response times, visualize performance trends, and integrate with third-party observability tools, thus enabling teams to efficiently manage and reduce latency.

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