Postman Collection Runner

The Collection Runner executes all requests in a collection — or a selected folder — one after another, automatically. Instead of clicking Send on each request individually, the runner handles the sequence for you and shows a full pass/fail report at the end.

Why the Collection Runner Exists

Manually testing ten endpoints one by one takes time and introduces human error. The Collection Runner runs all of them in seconds, applies any test scripts, and produces a clear report. You use it for regression testing, API smoke tests, and data-driven testing.

Open the Collection Runner

1. Click the Collections tab in the sidebar
2. Hover over your collection name
3. Click the Run (triangle play) icon that appears, or click the three-dot menu and select Run Collection

The Collection Runner opens in a new panel with all your requests listed.

Collection Runner Settings

Before clicking Run, configure these options:

Run the Collection

1. Select an environment from the dropdown
2. Leave Iterations at 1 for now
3. Click the orange Run [Collection Name] button

The runner executes each request in order. A live progress bar shows which request is running. When it finishes, the results screen appears.

Reading the Results Report

The results screen lists every request with a pass/fail status for each test.

Run Results – JSONPlaceholder Practice
─────────────────────────────────────────
✅ GET All Users          2 / 2 tests passed   (245ms)
✅ GET User by ID         3 / 3 tests passed   (189ms)
❌ POST Create User       1 / 2 tests passed   (311ms)
   └── ❌ FAIL: Status is 201 → Actual: 500
✅ DELETE User            1 / 1 tests passed   (204ms)
─────────────────────────────────────────
Total: 7/8 tests passed    1 failed

Each failed test shows exactly which assertion failed and what the actual value was. This makes it easy to find and fix the problem.

Data-Driven Testing with a CSV File

You can run a collection multiple times, each time using different data from a CSV file. This tests many scenarios without writing separate requests.

Example CSV File

userId,expectedName
1,Leanne Graham
2,Ervin Howell
3,Clementine Bauch

How It Works

1. Create a CSV file with column headers matching variable names
2. In the Collection Runner, click Select File in the Data section
3. Upload your CSV file
4. Set Iterations to 3 (or let Postman auto-detect from the CSV row count)
5. In your request URL, use {{userId}} — Postman fills this in from the CSV on each iteration
6. In your test, check: pm.expect(data.name).to.equal(pm.iterationData.get("expectedName"));

The runner makes three passes. Each pass uses one row from the CSV. The test checks a different expected name each time.

Data-Driven Test Diagram

CSV File:             Runner Iterations:
userId,expectedName
1,Leanne Graham  →  Iteration 1: GET /users/1 → checks "Leanne Graham" ✅
2,Ervin Howell   →  Iteration 2: GET /users/2 → checks "Ervin Howell"  ✅
3,Clementine     →  Iteration 3: GET /users/3 → checks "Clementine"    ✅

Set Request Order

The runner executes requests in the order they appear in the collection sidebar. You can drag and reorder requests inside the Collection Runner before clicking Run. This is useful when requests depend on each other — for example, a login request must run first to get a token that later requests need.

Skip Specific Requests

Uncheck the checkbox next to any request in the Collection Runner to skip it during the run. The skipped request appears grey in the results but does not count as a failure.

Export the Results

After a run, click Export Results at the top of the results screen. Postman saves the results as a JSON file. You can share this file with your team or archive it for comparison with future runs.

Summary

The Collection Runner automates your entire test suite with one click. It runs requests in sequence, applies test scripts, and produces a pass/fail report. Data-driven testing with a CSV file lets you test many scenarios without duplicating requests. The results export gives you a record to share and compare over time.