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Suppose my parse.com api call limit is 30 api calls per second (the free tier). Suppose also that when opening an app I've created, I issue five api calls (1 call to the cloud code, three queries, and one save object).

Suppose 60 users happen to open the app at the same time. Would Parse begin rejecting some API calls?

The typical use case for my app would be 1 or maybe 2 api calls per second with 1000 active users. However, it is possible in some rare situations that I may issue 45 api calls per second. Is there a way around this without having to pay for a large number of API calls per second? It feels like I'm paying for cable TV (24 hours of 200 channels while I only see 2-3 channels 1 hour a day).

rici
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navkast
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1 Answers1

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One of the Parse guys mentioned recently that they count calls per minute. So the limit is actually 30*60/min or 1,800/min.

This allows for short bursts of activity to not cause problems.

After the 1,800th call in a minute, all further calls will be rejected.

Timothy Walters
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  • That almost seems worse than rejecting the 31st API call that second. Imagine a window of 10 seconds where all API calls are rejected across all mobile phones because one phone generated a thousand api calls in one minute... – navkast Aug 11 '14 at 02:12
  • For cases like you originally described, odd bursts for a second or two followed by little-to-no activity, it works out well. If you're getting 1000+ api calls from a single phone then you've got bigger issues and probably do need to increase your api limit. – Timothy Walters Aug 11 '14 at 02:15
  • I found a similar question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/24608496/parse-com-denial-of-service-by-exceeding-burst-limit?rq=1 Turns out that this is indeed a flaw where someone could run a denial-of-service attack. – navkast Aug 11 '14 at 03:56
  • Yup, unless the system has some in-built anti-DOS system, every rate-limited system will suffer from the same issue. – Timothy Walters Aug 11 '14 at 04:04