Insomnia

Overview

Insomnia is an API client designed to assist developers in the entire lifecycle of API development, from design and testing to debugging and automation. The platform offers a desktop application that provides a graphical user interface for interacting with APIs, alongside a command-line interface (CLI) tool, inso, for integrating API workflows into development pipelines. It supports a range of API protocols, including REST, GraphQL, gRPC, and WebSockets.

Developers use Insomnia to construct and send various types of API requests, inspect the responses, and manage collections of API calls. This functionality is intended to streamline the process of verifying API behavior, identifying issues, and ensuring API reliability. The tool includes features for environment management, allowing users to switch between different API environments (e.g., development, staging, production) without modifying request details. Additionally, Insomnia supports the creation of dynamic values and variables, which can be used to automate parts of the testing process and reduce manual input.

For collaborative development, Insomnia offers features for sharing API collections and environments among team members. This facilitates consistent API testing across a development team and helps maintain a single source of truth for API specifications. The platform also integrates with version control systems, enabling developers to track changes to API definitions and collaborate on API designs. Its focus on a user-friendly interface aims to lower the barrier to entry for API testing and make it accessible to a broader range of technical users.

Insomnia is suited for individual developers and teams working on microservices architectures, mobile application backends, and web services. It addresses the need for a dedicated tool that can handle the complexities of modern API interactions, including authentication mechanisms, data serialization formats, and error handling. The CLI tool extends its utility beyond interactive testing, allowing for integration into CI/CD pipelines for automated API testing and specification validation.

The platform is owned by Kong Inc., a company known for its API gateway solutions. This ownership aligns Insomnia with broader API management strategies, potentially offering integrations with other Kong products for a more comprehensive API infrastructure. The availability of a free tier makes it accessible for individual developers and small projects, while paid plans offer additional features for team collaboration and enterprise-level requirements, including compliance standards like SOC 2 Type II and GDPR.

Key features

• API Client for Multiple Protocols: Supports REST, GraphQL, gRPC, SOAP, and WebSockets, allowing developers to interact with various API types from a single interface.
• Request and Response Inspection: Provides tools to craft HTTP requests with custom headers, body types, and authentication, and to inspect detailed responses, including status codes, headers, and body content.
• Environment Management: Enables the creation and switching between different API environments (e.g., development, staging, production) with environment-specific variables.
• Dynamic Values and Variables: Supports generating dynamic data for requests, such as timestamps, random strings, and chained requests, to automate testing workflows.
• Code Generation: Generates code snippets for various programming languages and libraries based on crafted requests, assisting in integrating API calls into applications.
• API Design and Documentation: Facilitates API design with support for OpenAPI specifications and provides tools to generate and maintain API documentation.
• Collaboration Tools: Offers features for sharing API collections and environments with team members, promoting consistent API testing and development.
• CLI Tool (inso): Provides a command-line interface for running API tests, linting API specifications, and automating API workflows within CI/CD pipelines.
• Authentication Helpers: Includes built-in support for various authentication methods, such as OAuth 2.0, Basic Auth, and AWS IAM, simplifying secure API access.

Pricing

Insomnia offers a free tier for individual use and several paid plans with additional features for teams and enterprises. The pricing structure is typically based on a per-user per-month model, billed annually. As of May 28, 2026, the general pricing tiers are:

For the most current and detailed pricing information, refer to the official Insomnia pricing page.

Common integrations

• Git Version Control: Integrates with Git for versioning API collections and environments, enabling collaboration and change tracking.
• OpenAPI Specification: Supports importing and exporting OpenAPI specifications for API design, documentation, and validation.
• CI/CD Pipelines: The inso CLI tool can be integrated into CI/CD workflows (e.g., GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins) to automate API testing and specification linting.
• Kong Gateway: As a Kong Inc. product, Insomnia can integrate with Kong Gateway for managing and testing APIs deployed through the gateway.

Alternatives

• Postman: A widely used API platform for building, testing, and documenting APIs, offering a comprehensive set of features for individual developers and teams.
• RapidAPI Client: An API client that integrates with the RapidAPI Hub, allowing developers to test and consume thousands of APIs.
• Paw: A full-featured HTTP client for macOS, designed for developers to test and debug APIs with a focus on ease of use and powerful features.

Getting started

To get started with Insomnia, you typically download the desktop application. Once installed, you can begin creating requests. Below is an example of making a simple GET request to a public API using the Insomnia desktop client. This example assumes you have the Insomnia application installed.

First, open the Insomnia application. You'll see an interface where you can create new requests.

1. Click the + button (or New Request) to create a new request.
2. Select GET as the HTTP method.
3. Enter the URL https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/todos/1 into the URL bar. This is a public API that returns a sample To-Do item.
4. Click the Send button.

Insomnia will execute the request, and the response will appear in the right-hand panel. You will see the status code (e.g., 200 OK), response time, and the JSON body containing the To-Do item data.

For command-line usage with inso, you would first need to install the CLI tool. Assuming you have Node.js installed, you can install inso globally:

npm install -g inso

Once installed, you can use inso to run API tests or validate API specifications that you've defined in Insomnia. For instance, to list your Insomnia collections, you might use:

inso collections ls

For more detailed instructions on creating complex requests, managing environments, or using the CLI for automation, refer to the Insomnia documentation.