World’s largest survey of more than 40,000 developers and API professionals finds API monetization, AI tools a key focus for over half of the sector
Postman, the world’s leading API Platform, today released the results of its fifth annual 2023 State of the API Report, the largest and most comprehensive study of APIs. It surveyed more than 40,000 developers and API professionals on topics including development priorities, API tools, and the future of APIs. This year, the questions expanded to include timely insights on API monetization and generative AI.
“The State of the API Report sheds light on the realities of API usage and how APIs are delivering value to modern organizations,” said Abhinav Asthana, co-founder and CEO of Postman. “More companies are adopting an API-first approach to software development, and for the second year in a row, outperforming organizations that haven’t. Beyond the technical advantages, organizations are also seeing a direct impact on their bottom line, reporting their APIs as revenue generators. This outlook, combined with the rising use of AI tools, is fundamentally changing our relationship to software and the way we build it — and APIs are at the center of this shift.”
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When combined with data observed on the Postman API Platform, the 2023 State of the API Report builds a robust picture of the current and future state of APIs. Key findings include:
- APIs are a moneymaker for most: Almost two-thirds of respondents say their APIs generate revenue. Of those respondents, 43% said their APIs generate over a quarter of company revenue. In the financial services and advertising sectors, revenue was especially important. It was judged the No. 2 measure of public API success, just after usage.
- API pricing increasingly matters: When deciding whether to integrate with an API, 47% of respondents said price is a top consideration. That’s up from 41% in each of the past two years. While other factors ranked higher than pricing, this finding may reflect a more cost-conscious API consumer in the wake of tech’s economic contraction.
- Most API professionals are using AI to help code: 60% of respondents say they’re using generative AI. More than half of those use it to find bugs in their code, and over a third are relying on AI to generate code. When asked what type of project excites developers in the coming year, the top answer was building AI-powered apps.
- The outlook for API investment has brightened: Ninety-two percent of respondents say investments in APIs will rise or stay the same over the next 12 months, which is up from 89% last year. This increase may reflect a sense in some quarters that the worst of tech’s economic contraction has passed. At the same time, fewer respondents expect to cut API investments this year.
- API security is improving, but some sectors have work to do: API security improved for most respondents, with the frequency of incidents down in 2023. But some sectors fared worse than others. Automotive, education, and retail were sectors where survey-takers said monthly incidents occurred at higher rates than average.
- Number of API-first leaders swells by almost half: 11% of respondents defined themselves as API-first leaders, up from 8% in each of the previous two years. This elite group excels in almost every metric, including how fast it can produce APIs and how quickly it can recover when an API goes down.
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Produced by Postman, the 2023 State of the API Report is based on two sources: a survey of over 40,000 developers and API professionals from around the world and anonymized, aggregated data from the Postman API Platform. The survey was fielded over approximately five weeks in May and June 2023.