clickup-rate-limits

ClickUp Rate Limits

Overview

ClickUp enforces per-token, per-minute rate limits that vary by Workspace plan. When exceeded, the API returns HTTP 429 with rate limit headers.

Rate Limit Tiers

Workspace Plan	Requests/Min/Token	Burst Support
Free Forever	100	No
Unlimited	100	No
Business	100	No
Business Plus	1,000	Yes
Enterprise	10,000	Yes

Rate Limit Headers

Every ClickUp API response includes these headers:

Header	Description	Example
X-RateLimit-Limit	Max requests in window	100
X-RateLimit-Remaining	Requests left in window	95
X-RateLimit-Reset	Unix timestamp when limit resets	1695000060

Exponential Backoff with Jitter

async function clickupRequestWithRetry<T>(
  path: string,
  options: RequestInit = {},
  config = { maxRetries: 5, baseDelayMs: 1000, maxDelayMs: 60000 }
): Promise<T> {
  for (let attempt = 0; attempt <= config.maxRetries; attempt++) {
    const response = await fetch(`https://api.clickup.com/api/v2${path}`, {
      ...options,
      headers: {
        'Authorization': process.env.CLICKUP_API_TOKEN!,
        'Content-Type': 'application/json',
        ...options.headers,
      },
    });

    if (response.ok) return response.json();

    if (response.status === 429) {
      // Use server-provided reset time when available
      const resetTimestamp = response.headers.get('X-RateLimit-Reset');
      let waitMs: number;

      if (resetTimestamp) {
        waitMs = Math.max(0, parseInt(resetTimestamp) * 1000 - Date.now()) + 1000;
      } else {
        // Exponential backoff with jitter
        const exponential = config.baseDelayMs * Math.pow(2, attempt);
        const jitter = Math.random() * 1000;
        waitMs = Math.min(exponential + jitter, config.maxDelayMs);
      }

      console.warn(`Rate limited. Waiting ${(waitMs / 1000).toFixed(1)}s (attempt ${attempt + 1})`);
      await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, waitMs));
      continue;
    }

    // Non-retryable errors
    if (response.status < 500 && response.status !== 429) {
      const error = await response.json().catch(() => ({}));
      throw new Error(`ClickUp ${response.status}: ${error.err ?? 'Unknown error'}`);
    }

    // Server errors: retry with backoff
    if (attempt < config.maxRetries) {
      const delay = config.baseDelayMs * Math.pow(2, attempt);
      await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, delay));
    }
  }

  throw new Error(`ClickUp API: max retries exceeded for ${path}`);
}

Rate Limit Monitor

class ClickUpRateLimitMonitor {
  private remaining = 100;
  private limit = 100;
  private resetAt = 0;

  updateFromResponse(response: Response): void {
    const remaining = response.headers.get('X-RateLimit-Remaining');
    const limit = response.headers.get('X-RateLimit-Limit');
    const reset = response.headers.get('X-RateLimit-Reset');

    if (remaining) this.remaining = parseInt(remaining);
    if (limit) this.limit = parseInt(limit);
    if (reset) this.resetAt = parseInt(reset) * 1000;
  }

  shouldThrottle(): boolean {
    return this.remaining < 10 && Date.now() < this.resetAt;
  }

  getWaitMs(): number {
    return Math.max(0, this.resetAt - Date.now());
  }

  getUsagePercent(): number {
    return ((this.limit - this.remaining) / this.limit) * 100;
  }
}

Queue-Based Rate Limiting

import PQueue from 'p-queue';

// Stay under 100 req/min for Free/Unlimited/Business
const clickupQueue = new PQueue({
  concurrency: 5,        // Max parallel requests
  interval: 1000,        // Per second window
  intervalCap: 1,         // 1 request per second = 60/min (safe margin)
});

async function queuedClickUpRequest<T>(path: string, options?: RequestInit): Promise<T> {
  return clickupQueue.add(() => clickupRequestWithRetry(path, options));
}

// Bulk operations stay within limits automatically
const taskIds = ['abc', 'def', 'ghi', 'jkl'];
const tasks = await Promise.all(
  taskIds.map(id => queuedClickUpRequest(`/task/${id}`))
);

Pre-Flight Throttling

// Check headers before sending burst of requests
async function preFlightCheck(): Promise<{ safe: boolean; waitMs: number }> {
  const response = await fetch('https://api.clickup.com/api/v2/user', {
    headers: { 'Authorization': process.env.CLICKUP_API_TOKEN! },
  });

  const remaining = parseInt(response.headers.get('X-RateLimit-Remaining') || '100');
  const reset = parseInt(response.headers.get('X-RateLimit-Reset') || '0') * 1000;

  if (remaining < 10) {
    return { safe: false, waitMs: Math.max(0, reset - Date.now()) };
  }
  return { safe: true, waitMs: 0 };
}

Error Handling

Issue	Cause	Solution
Constant 429s	Exceeding plan limit	Upgrade plan or add request queuing
Thundering herd	All retries fire at same time	Add random jitter to backoff
Missing reset header	Older API version	Fall back to exponential backoff
Burst rejected	Too many concurrent	Reduce concurrency in queue

Resources

• ClickUp Rate Limits
• p-queue Library

Next Steps

For security configuration, see clickup-security-basics.