What is API Monitoring?

API monitoring checks that your APIs are available, responding correctly, and performing within acceptable limits. It's essential for any service that exposes or consumes APIs.

What Gets Monitored

• Availability — Is the API endpoint reachable?
• Response status — Does it return the expected HTTP status code?
• Response time — How fast does it respond?
• Response content — Does it return valid data?
• SSL/TLS — Is the connection secure?

Why API Monitoring Matters

Modern applications are built on APIs. Your mobile app talks to your backend API. Your backend calls third-party APIs. Your partners integrate with your public API.

When an API fails, the impact cascades. A broken payment API means no checkout. A slow auth API means frustrated users. A failed third-party API can bring down your entire service.

What to Monitor

Best Practices

1. Create a dedicated health check endpoint that tests critical dependencies
2. Monitor from outside your infrastructure
3. Set appropriate timeouts (APIs should respond in seconds, not minutes)
4. Alert on both downtime and performance degradation
5. Monitor your external dependencies, not just your own APIs

Example Health Check Response

{
  "status": "healthy",
  "timestamp": "2024-12-27T10:30:00Z",
  "checks": {
    "database": "ok",
    "cache": "ok",
    "external_api": "ok"
  }
}