HubSpot Rate Limits

Overview

Handle HubSpot API rate limits with proper backoff strategies. HubSpot enforces per-second and daily limits shared across all apps in a portal.

Prerequisites

• @hubspot/api-client installed
• Understanding of HubSpot's shared rate limit model

Instructions

Step 1: Understand HubSpot Rate Limit Tiers

Critical: Limits are per HubSpot portal (account), not per app. All private apps and OAuth apps in the same portal share the same limit bucket.

Step 2: Use SDK Built-in Retries

import * as hubspot from '@hubspot/api-client';

// The SDK has built-in retry for 429 responses
const client = new hubspot.Client({
  accessToken: process.env.HUBSPOT_ACCESS_TOKEN!,
  numberOfApiCallRetries: 3, // retries 429 and 5xx automatically
});

Step 3: Custom Backoff with Retry-After Header

async function withHubSpotBackoff<T>(
  operation: () => Promise<T>,
  config = { maxRetries: 5, baseDelayMs: 1000, maxDelayMs: 30000 }
): Promise<T> {
  for (let attempt = 0; attempt <= config.maxRetries; attempt++) {
    try {
      return await operation();
    } catch (error: any) {
      if (attempt === config.maxRetries) throw error;

      const status = error?.code || error?.statusCode || error?.response?.status;

      // Only retry on 429 and 5xx
      if (status !== 429 && (status < 500 || status >= 600)) throw error;

      // Honor Retry-After header from HubSpot
      let delay: number;
      const retryAfter = error?.response?.headers?.['retry-after'];
      if (retryAfter) {
        delay = parseInt(retryAfter) * 1000;
      } else {
        // Exponential backoff with jitter
        const exponential = config.baseDelayMs * Math.pow(2, attempt);
        const jitter = Math.random() * 500;
        delay = Math.min(exponential + jitter, config.maxDelayMs);
      }

      console.warn(`HubSpot rate limited (attempt ${attempt + 1}/${config.maxRetries}). ` +
        `Retrying in ${delay}ms...`);
      await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, delay));
    }
  }
  throw new Error('Unreachable');
}

Step 4: Request Queue for Throughput Control

import PQueue from 'p-queue';

// Queue that respects HubSpot's 10 req/sec limit
const hubspotQueue = new PQueue({
  concurrency: 5,        // max parallel requests
  interval: 1000,        // per second
  intervalCap: 10,       // max 10 per interval (HubSpot limit)
});

async function queuedRequest<T>(operation: () => Promise<T>): Promise<T> {
  return hubspotQueue.add(operation) as Promise<T>;
}

// Usage -- all calls automatically throttled
const results = await Promise.all(
  contactIds.map(id =>
    queuedRequest(() =>
      client.crm.contacts.basicApi.getById(id, ['email', 'firstname'])
    )
  )
);

Step 5: Batch Operations to Reduce Call Volume

// Instead of 100 individual GET calls (100 API calls):
// BAD
for (const id of contactIds) {
  await client.crm.contacts.basicApi.getById(id, ['email']);
}

// Use batch read (1 API call for up to 100 records):
// GOOD - POST /crm/v3/objects/contacts/batch/read
const batchResult = await client.crm.contacts.batchApi.read({
  inputs: contactIds.map(id => ({ id })),
  properties: ['email', 'firstname', 'lastname'],
  propertiesWithHistory: [],
});

console.log(`Fetched ${batchResult.results.length} contacts in 1 API call`);

Step 6: Monitor Rate Limit Headers

class HubSpotRateLimitMonitor {
  private dailyRemaining = 500000;
  private secondlyRemaining = 10;

  updateFromResponse(headers: Record<string, string>): void {
    if (headers['x-hubspot-ratelimit-daily-remaining']) {
      this.dailyRemaining = parseInt(headers['x-hubspot-ratelimit-daily-remaining']);
    }
    if (headers['x-hubspot-ratelimit-secondly-remaining']) {
      this.secondlyRemaining = parseInt(headers['x-hubspot-ratelimit-secondly-remaining']);
    }
  }

  shouldThrottle(): boolean {
    return this.secondlyRemaining < 2 || this.dailyRemaining < 1000;
  }

  getStatus(): { daily: number; secondly: number; warning: boolean } {
    return {
      daily: this.dailyRemaining,
      secondly: this.secondlyRemaining,
      warning: this.shouldThrottle(),
    };
  }
}

Output

• SDK built-in retry handles basic 429s
• Custom backoff honors Retry-After header
• Request queue enforces 10 req/sec limit
• Batch operations reduce API call volume by 100x
• Rate limit monitoring prevents threshold breaches

Error Handling

Examples

Quick Rate Limit Check

# Check current rate limit state
curl -sI https://api.hubapi.com/crm/v3/objects/contacts?limit=1 \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $HUBSPOT_ACCESS_TOKEN" \
  | grep -i ratelimit

# Output:
# X-HubSpot-RateLimit-Daily: 500000
# X-HubSpot-RateLimit-Daily-Remaining: 499800
# X-HubSpot-RateLimit-Secondly: 10
# X-HubSpot-RateLimit-Secondly-Remaining: 9

Resources

• HubSpot API Usage Guidelines
• Error Handling Guide
• p-queue npm

Next Steps

For security configuration, see hubspot-security-basics.