Airtable · api · fg-0432

Airtable returns 429 and then keeps failing for 30 seconds after a burst of requests to one base

429 RATE_LIMIT_REACHED

Verified 2026-10-15 · Confirmed by 0 builders · Trust 50/100

Cause

The API allows 5 requests per second per base and 50 per second across all traffic from one user's tokens. Going over earns a 30 second penalty, so fast retries extend the outage.

Fix

Queue requests per base at 5 per second or fewer, batch writes 10 records at a time, and wait at least 30 seconds after a 429 before retrying.

Apply

const sleep = ms => new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, ms));
for (const batch of batches) { await base("Table").update(batch); await sleep(220); }
// on 429: await sleep(30000) before the next call

Affects: Airtable Web API, limits as published 2026-10 (5 per second per base, 50 per second per user token)

Sources

Have your agent know this before it fails

claude mcp add --transport http footgun https://getfootgun.com/api/mcp