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Question

Rate Limiting on Recursive Deletes

  • May 22, 2025
  • 3 replies
  • 26 views
C
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Hello!

I have a batch process that is going through a list of folders and executing a call to DELETE https://api.box.com/2.0/folders/:folder_id/ with recursive=true. After a while I start to get 429 Too Many Requests error. My batch process is clearly not reaching the documented API rate limits is it is making these calls at about 1 per second.

My question is, if I delete a large folder with recursive=true, will the operation of deleting each of the underlying folders/files count additionally against the API rate limit even though I am not explicitly making the call to those underlying files/folders? 

Thanks!

    3 replies

    C
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    Hi, 

    Any actions a user id is taking (including those on the backend) count toward the rate limits. I imagine if you are deleting a large folder with lots of children, there is a possibility you are hitting the limit. 

    Thanks, 

    Box Developer Advocate

    C
    Forum|alt.badge.img

    Thanks Alex. For the sake of clarity, if I call Delete folder one time, but that folder has 500 subfolders and files, is that going to count as 501 requests against the API Rate Limit in the time it took to execute?

    C
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    Correct. At least that is what I gather from speaking to folks internally. 

    Alex

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