diff --git a/tests/backend/specs/api/instance.js b/tests/backend/specs/api/instance.js
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e9b139703
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/backend/specs/api/instance.js
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+/*
+ * Tests for the instance-level APIs
+ *
+ * Section "GLOBAL FUNCTIONS" in src/node/db/API.js
+ */
+const assert = require('assert');
+const supertest = require(__dirname+'/../../../../src/node_modules/supertest');
+const fs = require('fs');
+const settings = require(__dirname+'/../../loadSettings').loadSettings();
+const api = supertest('http://'+settings.ip+":"+settings.port);
+const path = require('path');
+
+var filePath = path.join(__dirname, '../../../../APIKEY.txt');
+
+var apiKey = fs.readFileSync(filePath,  {encoding: 'utf-8'});
+apiKey = apiKey.replace(/\n$/, "");
+
+var apiVersion = '1.2.14';
+
+describe('Connectivity for instance-level API tests', function() {
+  it('can connect', function(done) {
+    api.get('/api/')
+    .expect('Content-Type', /json/)
+    .expect(200, done)
+  });
+});
+
+describe('getStats', function(){
+  it('Gets the stats of a running instance', function(done) {
+    api.get(endPoint('getStats'))
+    .expect(function(res){
+      if (res.body.code !== 0) throw new Error("getStats() failed");
+
+      if (!(('totalPads' in res.body.data) && (typeof res.body.data.totalPads === 'number'))) {
+        throw new Error(`Response to getStats() does not contain field totalPads, or it's not a number: ${JSON.stringify(res.body.data)}`);
+      }
+
+      if (!(('totalSessions' in res.body.data) && (typeof res.body.data.totalSessions === 'number'))) {
+        throw new Error(`Response to getStats() does not contain field totalSessions, or it's not a number: ${JSON.stringify(res.body.data)}`);
+      }
+
+      if (!(('totalActivePads' in res.body.data) && (typeof res.body.data.totalActivePads === 'number'))) {
+        throw new Error(`Response to getStats() does not contain field totalActivePads, or it's not a number: ${JSON.stringify(res.body.data)}`);
+      }
+    })
+    .expect('Content-Type', /json/)
+    .expect(200, done);
+  });
+});
+
+var endPoint = function(point, version){
+  version = version || apiVersion;
+  return '/api/'+version+'/'+point+'?apikey='+apiKey;
+}