Best offer on record: Postman Free plan (free tier). 6 verified findings, checked 2026-10-22.
Offers
Postman Free plan (free tier) high confidence
Official Free plan on postman.com/pricing (read 2026-10-22): 1 user; 1,000 API monitoring requests/month (per team); unlimited automated API testing via Collection Runner; Mock Servers (cloud and local) with no stated cap; 25 Automation Flows credits/month; Context Graph ingestion free (24h refresh) and 1,000 Context Graph queries/month then $0.01/query; up to 5 integrations; 10,000 calls/month to Postman's own platform API; collection recovery window 1 day; Postman-branded API docs. Not included on Free: RBAC, SSO, cloud performance testing, private NPM packages, SDK generation, custom domains, monitor reports, API Catalog, private runners. Card lists '100 AI credits' but the comparison table row 'Postman AI credits' shows '50 / month' for Free - a live discrepancy on the same page; known data (100 AI credits/mo) matches the plan card. Paid reference prices (annual billing): Solo $9/user/mo, Team $19/user/mo, Enterprise via sales.
Eligibility
Open to everyone - individuals, students, startups; no .edu email, age, funding, or region requirement stated. Free account creation (email or SSO login) with no payment method on the page; credit card is not part of the free sign-up (official page does not say 'no credit card required' - medium confidence on that detail). Free desktop app + CLI: 'Download Postman | Get Started for Free', 'Create a free account and you are in.'
How to claim
Go to postman.com/pricing -> 'Get Started'/'Sign Up for Free' to create a free account; the API client, CLI, and platform features at Free limits are immediately available. Download app at postman.com/downloads.
Expiry
Perpetual free tier; no trial clock or renewal. Free features stay until user adds a paid plan; downgrades keep the account usable at Free limits.
Gotchas
Only 1 user on Free (a free team workspace with collaborators requires a paid plan). The pricing page self-contradicts on AI credits (100 on plan card vs 50/month in the table) - verify before relying on 100. Usage-based charges can still hit a Free account: Context Graph overage $0.01/query beyond 1,000/month, and cloud perf testing / AI overage are paid features gated to paid plans. Basic and Professional plans are gone for new customers, so older student-startup offers built on those tiers no longer exist.
Postman Academy (free education/certification platform) high confidence
academy.postman.com (read live 2026-10-22): 'Master APIs with Postman Academy' - free on-demand self-study learning modules and learning paths (e.g., API Testing Path v12, API Collaboration Best Practices), free live webinars ('Sign up for free, live sessions led by Postman trainers'), and course-completion badges/certifications. Stats shown: 150k+ learners, 250+ workshops, 95% satisfaction. Content can be filtered by persona and Postman license type. Enterprise training (private workshops, custom-branded academy, LMS reporting) is a paid/Enterprise offering, not part of the free offer.
Eligibility
Open to everyone - no .edu email, region, or startup requirement stated; access via a free Postman account. No credit card required.
How to claim
Sign in to Postman at academy.postman.com, pick a learning path or course, complete it; badges are issued automatically after course completion (now via Credly).
Expiry
Perpetual free access; no stated expiration. Badging migration: from 21 Jul 2026 badges move from Badgr to Credly; previously earned Badgr badges are NOT revoked; reissuance of old badges only on request to academy@postman.com.
Gotchas
Free tier is the self-study/live-webinar content; instructor-led private workshops and custom-branded academies are enterprise/commercial. Not a free Postman product license - it is free learning content. The 'new learning platform' LiftOff (postman.com/liftoff) is Postman's 2026 successor-style track alongside Academy.
Postman LiftOff (free hands-on learning, new in 2026) high confidence
postman.com/liftoff (read live 2026-10-22): 'Interactive, hands-on learning modules with real-time API validation', 'Powered by Postman'. Currently 5 Learning Paths and 21 Modules; progress steps per module (e.g., '0/20 steps completed'); users can 'earn your rank'. Sign in with Discord to save progress; browse without signing in. No pricing, paid tier, or limits stated anywhere on the page - free.
Eligibility
Open to everyone ('Start your API journey here'); no student/startup-specific targeting, no .edu or region requirement; Discord sign-in optional.
How to claim
Browse paths at postman.com/liftoff, sign in with Discord to track progress, connect Postman when ready to validate against real APIs.
Expiry
No expiration stated; free with a Postman account.
Gotchas
No certifications or credentials issued on the LiftOff page itself (unlike Academy badges); small catalog so far (5 paths / 21 modules) - content is being built out. 'Real-time API validation' consumes runs against your Postman account limits (Free plan applies).
Postman for Students program (sunset/absent as of 2026-10-22) medium confidence
The former dedicated student offering has no live presence: https://www.postman.com/students/ returns HTTP 200 but is a generic app SPA shell (identical byte-size shell as /startups/ and /education/, title just 'Postman') - i.e., the marketing page no longer exists; /learn/education/ is a hard 404; the current Learn hub (postman.com/learn/, read 2026-10-22) contains no student/educator program links, only Docs, Academy, LiftOff, webinars, Discord. After the March 2026 plan restructure, the tiers are Free/Solo/Team/Enterprise with Basic and Professional 'no longer available for new customers', so the paid-tier student licenses that a student program would have granted no longer exist for new signups. Net effect: student access is covered by the universal Free plan (1 user) + free Academy/LiftOff learning. Note: web search budget was exhausted this session, so a sunset announcement page could not be located directly; conclusion is from live absence on official pages.
Eligibility
N/A - program not claimable; no .edu verification flow found anywhere on current official pages.
How to claim
Nothing to claim. Students use the standard Free plan (postman.com/pricing) and free Postman Academy/LiftOff courses.
Expiry
No active program; old pages soft-404 to the app shell, /learn/education/ hard-404s.
Gotchas
Treat any third-party page or archive claiming a 'Postman for Students' free Professional license as outdated; Professional is not offered to new customers. If a school previously had an education license, it would be legacy Basic/Professional and is migrated to Team over time per Postman FAQ.
Startup program / startup discount (not found) medium confidence
No public 'Postman for Startups' program exists on official pages as of 2026-10-22: https://www.postman.com/startups/ returns 200 but serves the same generic app SPA shell as other nonexistent marketing routes; the pricing page and FAQ contain no startup discount, funding-cap, or company-age terms; the only 'trial' wording is 'Teams can trial Enterprise features to evaluate advanced collaboration, security, and governance before upgrading' (Enterprise evaluation via sales, not a public self-serve startup offer). Postman's partner-facing program (/partner-program/) is for technology/integration partners, not for startups. Absence verified by live page fetches; no web search was possible this session, so a non-public/VC-channel startup deal cannot be fully ruled out.
Eligibility
N/A - no public startup offer to claim.
How to claim
N/A - startups, like all users, get the standard Free plan (1 user) and would pay Solo $9/user/mo or Team $19/user/mo (annual) for more; Enterprise evaluation by contacting sales.
Expiry
N/A.
Gotchas
If a startup hears about a 'Postman startup program' from a VC or partner, it is not a published public offer and would be scoped via sales; the Free plan's 1-user limit means a startup team should budget for Team ($19/user/mo annual) beyond one seat.
No self-serve trial-credit program for students or startups. The pricing FAQ (read 2026-10-22) only states: 'Teams can trial Enterprise features to evaluate advanced collaboration, security, and governance before upgrading' - no duration or self-serve steps published. The Free plan itself is not a trial: it is a perpetual tier (1 user, 1,000 monitoring requests/month, unlimited collection runs, mock servers), with no credit card required. AI overage is pay-as-you-go on paid plans only ($0.035-$0.05/credit depending on tier).
Eligibility
Free plan: everyone, no CC. Enterprise trial: organizations via sales contact; no student/startup-specific trial credits.
How to claim
Free plan: sign up at postman.com with a free account. Enterprise trial: 'Contact Sales' from postman.com/pricing.
Expiry
Free tier: no expiry. Enterprise trial: duration not published.
Gotchas
Don't confuse Free tier with an expiring trial - it is a permanent plan. Usage-based add-ons (Context Graph overage $0.01/query, cloud perf testing $0.04/VuH on Solo) can generate charges on paid plans even though the base is free.
2025-2026 changes (verified on official pages 2026-10-22): (1) March 2026 plan consolidation - Postman rebuilt tiers to Free/Solo/Team/Enterprise with an AI-native feature set shipping March 1, 2026 (v11/v12); per pricing FAQ, 'Basic and Professional plans are no longer available for new customers', existing Basic customers migrate to Team over time, existing Professional customers stay on current plan/pricing (blog.postman.com/new-capabilities-march-2026, published Jan 31, 2026). This effectively retired the tier structure that older student education licenses were built on. (2) The dedicated student marketing page (postman.com/students) and /learn/education/ are no longer live (soft-404 to app SPA shell / hard 404) - the student program appears sunset or folded into the universal Free plan + Academy/LiftOff; no live offer page exists as of 2026-10-22. (3) No public startup program page exists (postman.com/startups soft-404s). (4) July 21, 2026: Postman Academy badges migrated from Badgr to Credly (existing Badgr badges retained, not revoked). (5) Free plan AI-credit figure is inconsistent on the live pricing page (100 on plan card vs 50/month in the table). Caveat: the session's web-search budget was exhausted, so confirmation of explicit sunset *announcements* (blog posts about the student program ending) was not possible; absence was verified by live fetch of official pages today.