Rate limits

Airtable API requests are limited to 5 requests per second per API key. Exceeding this rate will trigger a 30 second cooldown during which no further requests will succeed. While this rate limit is not unreasonable, the cooldown period makes the API unsuitable for many purposes where reliability is important.

AirQL papers over these limits by attempting to avoid triggering the cooldown. If AirQL client requests would result in Airtable requests that would exceed the quota, those requests will block briefly before hitting Airtable, or return an error directly.

This is done in a best effort manner and it is still recommended to avoid large request volumes when possible.