Rate limits and node limits for the GraphQL API

Node limit

To pass schema validation, all GraphQL API calls must meet these standards:

Clients must supply a first or last argument on any connection.
Values of first and last must be within 1-100.
Individual calls cannot request more than 500,000 total nodes.

Calculating nodes in a call

These two examples show how to calculate the total nodes in a call.

Simple query:

query {
  viewer {
    repositories(first: 50) {
      edges {
        repository:node {
          name

          issues(first: 10) {
            totalCount
            edges {
              node {
                title
                bodyHTML
              }
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Calculation:

50         = 50 repositories
 +
50 x 10  = 500 repository issues

            = 550 total nodes

Complex query:

query {
  viewer {
    repositories(first: 50) {
      edges {
        repository:node {
          name

          pullRequests(first: 20) {
            edges {
              pullRequest:node {
                title

                comments(first: 10) {
                  edges {
                    comment:node {
                      bodyHTML
                    }
                  }
                }
              }
            }
          }

          issues(first: 20) {
            totalCount
            edges {
              issue:node {
                title
                bodyHTML

                comments(first: 10) {
                  edges {
                    comment:node {
                      bodyHTML
                    }
                  }
                }
              }
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }

    followers(first: 10) {
      edges {
        follower:node {
          login
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Calculation:

50              = 50 repositories
 +
50 x 20       = 1,000 pullRequests
 +
50 x 20 x 10 = 10,000 pullRequest comments
 +
50 x 20       = 1,000 issues
 +
50 x 20 x 10 = 10,000 issue comments
 +
10              = 10 followers

                 = 22,060 total nodes

The GraphQL API assigns points to each query and limits the points that you can use within a specific amount of time. This limit helps prevent abuse and denial-of-service attacks, and ensures that the API remains available for all users.

The REST API also has a separate primary rate limit. For more information, see Rate limits for the REST API.

In general, you can calculate your primary rate limit for the GraphQL API based on your method of authentication:

For users: 5,000 points per hour per user. This includes requests made with a personal access token as well as requests made by a GitHub App or OAuth app on behalf of a user that authorized the app. Requests made on a user's behalf by a GitHub App that is owned by a GitHub Enterprise Cloud organization have a higher rate limit of 10,000 points per hour. Similarly, requests made on your behalf by an OAuth app that is owned or approved by a GitHub Enterprise Cloud organization have a higher rate limit of 10,000 points per hour if you are a member of the GitHub Enterprise Cloud organization.
For GitHub App installations not on a GitHub Enterprise Cloud organization: 5,000 points per hour per installation. Installations that have more than 20 repositories receive another 50 points per hour for each repository. Installations that are on an organization that have more than 20 users receive another 50 points per hour for each user. The rate limit cannot increase beyond 12,500 points per hour. The rate limit for user access tokens (as opposed to installation access tokens) are dictated by the primary rate limit for users.
For GitHub App installations on a GitHub Enterprise Cloud organization: 10,000 points per hour per installation. The rate limit for user access tokens (as opposed to installation access tokens) are dictated by the primary rate limit for users.
For OAuth apps: 5,000 points per hour, or 10,000 points per hour if the app is owned by a GitHub Enterprise Cloud organization. This only applies when the app uses their client ID and client secret to request public data. The rate limit for OAuth access tokens generated by a OAuth app are dictated by the primary rate limit for users.
For GITHUB_TOKEN in GitHub Actions workflows: 1,000 points per hour per repository. For requests to resources that belong to an enterprise account on GitHub.com, the limit is 15,000 points per hour per repository.

You can check the point value of a query or calculate the expected point value as described in the following sections. The formula for calculating points and the rate limit are subject to change.

Checking the status of your primary rate limit

You can use the headers that are sent with each response to determine the current status of your primary rate limit.

Header name	Description
`x-ratelimit-limit`	The maximum number of points that you can use per hour
`x-ratelimit-remaining`	The number of points remaining in the current rate limit window
`x-ratelimit-used`	The number of points you have used in the current rate limit window
`x-ratelimit-reset`	The time at which the current rate limit window resets, in UTC epoch seconds
`x-ratelimit-resource`	The rate limit resource that the request counted against. For GraphQL requests, this will always be `graphql`.

You can also query the rateLimit object to check your rate limit. When possible, you should use the rate limit response headers instead of querying the API to check your rate limit.

query {
  viewer {
    login
  }
  rateLimit {
    limit
    remaining
    used
    resetAt
  }
}

Field	Description
`limit`	The maximum number of points that you can use per hour
`remaining`	The number of points remaining in the current rate limit window
`used`	The number of points you have used in the current rate limit window
`resetAt`	The time at which the current rate limit window resets, in UTC epoch seconds

Returning the point value of a query

You can return the point value of a query by querying the cost field on the rateLimit object:

query {
  viewer {
    login
  }
  rateLimit {
    cost
  }
}

Predicting the point value of a query

You can also roughly calculate the point value of a query before you make the query.

Add up the number of requests needed to fulfill each unique connection in the call. Assume every request will reach the first or last argument limits.
Divide the number by 100 and round the result to the nearest whole number to get the final aggregate point value. This step normalizes large numbers.

Note

The minimum point value of a call to the GraphQL API is 1.

Here's an example query and score calculation:

query {
  viewer {
    login
    repositories(first: 100) {
      edges {
        node {
          id

          issues(first: 50) {
            edges {
              node {
                id

                labels(first: 60) {
                  edges {
                    node {
                      id
                      name
                    }
                  }
                }
              }
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

This query requires 5,101 requests to fulfill:

Although we're returning 100 repositories, the API has to connect to the viewer's account once to get the list of repositories. So, requests for repositories = 1
Although we're returning 50 issues, the API has to connect to each of the 100 repositories to get the list of issues. So, requests for issues = 100
Although we're returning 60 labels, the API has to connect to each of the 5,000 potential total issues to get the list of labels. So, requests for labels = 5,000
Total = 5,101

Dividing by 100 and rounding gives us the final score of the query: 51

Secondary rate limits

In addition to primary rate limits, GitHub enforces secondary rate limits in order to prevent abuse and keep the API available for all users.

You may encounter a secondary rate limit if you:

Make too many concurrent requests. No more than 100 concurrent requests are allowed. This limit is shared across the REST API and GraphQL API.
Make too many requests to a single endpoint per minute. No more than 900 points per minute are allowed for REST API endpoints, and no more than 2,000 points per minute are allowed for the GraphQL API endpoint. For more information about points, see Calculating points for the secondary rate limit.
Make too many requests per minute. No more than 90 seconds of CPU time per 60 seconds of real time is allowed. No more than 60 seconds of this CPU time may be for the GraphQL API. You can roughly estimate the CPU time by measuring the total response time for your API requests.
Make too many requests that consume excessive compute resources in a short period of time.
Create too much content on GitHub in a short amount of time. In general, no more than 80 content-generating requests per minute and no more than 500 content-generating requests per hour are allowed. Some endpoints have lower content creation limits. Content creation limits include actions taken on the GitHub web interface as well as via the REST API and GraphQL API.

These secondary rate limits are subject to change without notice. You may also encounter a secondary rate limit for undisclosed reasons.

Calculating points for the secondary rate limit

Some secondary rate limits are determined by the point values of requests. For GraphQL requests, these point values are separate from the point value calculations for the primary rate limit.

Request	Points
GraphQL requests without mutations	1
GraphQL requests with mutations	5
Most REST API `GET`, `HEAD`, and `OPTIONS` requests	1
Most REST API `POST`, `PATCH`, `PUT`, or `DELETE` requests	5

Some REST API endpoints have a different point cost that is not shared publicly.

Exceeding the rate limit

If you exceed your primary rate limit, the response status will still be 200, but you will receive an error message, and the value of the x-ratelimit-remaining header will be 0. You should not retry your request until after the time specified by the x-ratelimit-reset header.

If you exceed a secondary rate limit, the response status will be 200 or 403, and you will receive an error message that indicates that you hit a secondary rate limit. If the retry-after response header is present, you should not retry your request until after that many seconds has elapsed. If the x-ratelimit-remaining header is 0, you should not retry your request until after the time, in UTC epoch seconds, specified by the x-ratelimit-reset header. Otherwise, wait for at least one minute before retrying. If your request continues to fail due to a secondary rate limit, wait for an exponentially increasing amount of time between retries, and throw an error after a specific number of retries.

Continuing to make requests while you are rate limited may result in the banning of your integration.

Staying under the rate limit

To avoid exceeding a rate limit, you should pause at least 1 second between mutative requests and avoid concurrent requests.

You should also subscribe to webhook events instead of polling the API for data. For more information, see Webhooks documentation.

You can also stream the audit log in order to view API requests. This can help you troubleshoot integrations that are exceeding the rate limit. For more information, see Streaming the audit log for your enterprise.