Q&A

workflow hitting API rate limits - how to throttle requests

Nov 10

i have a workflow that loops through about 500 records in a table and calls an external API for each one. the API has a rate limit of 10 requests per second and my workflow is blasting through them too fast and getting 429 errors is there a way to add a delay between iterations? or batch them somehow? in n8n i used the wait node but i dont see an exact equivalent here the retry mechanism catches the 429s and retries but then it just hits the limit again lol. need actual throttling not just retry

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Comments (3)

Mike Wheeler · Nov 11

add a wait/delay node inside your loop. set it to 100ms (or whatever interval stays under the rate limit). so the loop processes one record, waits 100ms, then processes the next for 10 requests/second you want at least 100ms between requests. i usually add a little buffer and do 150ms to be safe alternatively if the API supports batch requests, accumulate 50-100 items and send them in one call. way more efficient than individual calls with delays

Ravi Krishnan · Nov 12

the delay node was exactly what i needed. 150ms between calls and no more 429s. thanks!

Alex Janssen · Nov 13

for large batches (1000+ records) i also recommend splitting into chunks and processing over multiple scheduled runs rather than one massive loop. more resilient to failures and easier on the API