How to handle the 1000 variant per day limit on API uploads?

[DavisMK]

Backstory (we sell POD clothing all printed in house so have a lot of variants)

About 6 weeks ago we were told that there was a new limit for uploading variants via API, 1000 variants a day when your store hits 50k variants. For us that is approximately two designs per day. We were told originally that this was only an API limit and that we should continue to upload via the CSV, so have been doing that no problem, until today when i tried to upload a file and it hit the limit after 5 products. 

Support chat are telling me this limit is now in force across all creation methods and that we have a choice of either upload less than 1000 a day, or upgrade to shopify plus at minimum of $3k a month. 

Has anyone else run into this problem? It seems that the help didn't even know it was a thing until i sent them screenshots of the error, seems like communication on this could be a lot better, the help pages don't mention a limit at all except on the developers API page

[Anthony_Gonzal1]

I'm having the same issue. I use a POD as well. I create shirts with 99 variants that with sizes and colors.

I'm only able to create 10 products a day. I created another shopify "Lite" account to go around the limit and it worked. I tried to import the products over 100 products today via CSV file today and the it gave me an api error after the 1000 variant limit now.

I'm seriously getting tired of this. This putting a real strain on a productive day.

I'm looking into other alternatives. They need to fix this before I find one.

[shopynoname]

Someone found a fix ATM?

I need sales for my ecommerce!

[DavisMK]

Funny how on the website it still says "Unlimited products" under the pricing, no mention of the limits

[Anthony_Gonzal1]

They're really making it hard to progress with shopify.

[MilitaryStore]

We've just been hit with this upload limit. It's absolutely ridiculous and massively hampers the way we work with our clothing store.

It's just one thing after another with Shopify trying to push everyone on to the overpriced Plus platform.

We'll be looking in to alternatives to move our business elsewhere.

[Anthony_Gonzal1]

What really sucks is that a lot of these POD companies only integrate with shopify.

So the hard work you did to create mockups and products will be for nothing if you move to woocommerce or bigcommerce

[Peter_Rhodes]

We are having the same issue. The API response we get says: 

{
	"errors":{
		"product":[
			"Daily variant creation limit reached. Please try again later. See https:\/\/help.shopify.com\/en\/api\/getting-started\/api-call-limit for more information about rate limits and how to avoid them."
		]
	}
}

Here is the link for ease: https://help.shopify.com/en/api/reference/rest-admin-api-rate-limits#resource-based-rate-limits 

[Anthony_Gonzal1]

When I was getting errors creating products. I contacted support and they didn't know what was going on. So they sent emails to the developers with my screenshots to see their responses.

One finally got back with me and told me about the api call limit. I contacted support back and said they just implemented this in April but it was supposed to be for "third party apps" only.

So I started using CSV import and that got past the 1000 api call limit.

But now they just changed that which really is BS. You can email them to ask for api call increase but more than likely be denied.

Now I can't do nothing for 24 hours.

[MilitaryStore]

We started having csv import issues in January, it seemed a limit of 9000 varients (per file, not day) was in place after getting in touch with support. This new 1000 limit for 24 hrs is a joke.

[Anthony_Gonzal1]

Ok. I'll reduce the number of products and try again. If that's the case it'll make my life a bit easier

[DavisMK]

So far the advice I have been given by shopify staff is "Try only listing your best selling products" - well that's not really how businesses are run. 

The limit is terrible, but what makes it worse is that it's not a rolling limit. If you don't upload for a day it doesn't roll that allowance over, so if you decide in 2 months time that you need to delete and re-create 10,000 variants, it will take 10 days, and you need to make sure you are hitting 1000 a day every day. 

[Peter_Rhodes]

It makes no sense to delete old items; when return customers reconnect with a vendor, they do so, many times, through old purchases, looking for something similar.  The idea of "just delete old items, wholesale," flies in the face of best practices.

I wonder if this limit is just a sign of major data-structure/infrastructure issues that Shopify is facing. If you start putting a paywall on your API, it can't be because things are going swell.

It could be problems associated with growth, but then we might see the Shopify Plus price drop. Otherwise, it smells more like a problem associated with shrinkage. Albeit, shrinkage happens in a lot of ways, including the consequences of ridiculous API hits.

[Anthony_Gonzal1]

So I just tried to import via CSV file. The file had 21 products with 1100 skus. Got the error again.

Daily variant creation limit reached. Please try again later. See https://help.shopify.com/en/api/getting-started/api-call-limit for more information about rate limits and how to avoid them.

So importing is out of the question now. This is completely BS.

[DavisMK]

Over the last few years Shopify has been heavily invested in ‘dropship growth’, it feels like they have benefitted massively from promoting the idea that you with a few apps you can load up thousands of products into the your store and start selling, the problem is that 99% of these businesses fail, and it’s probably quite expensive for Shopify to maintain these large catalogs.

[Anthony_Gonzal1]

What's even more messed up is the underhanded way they're doing this. Not any kind of notification be email to all their customers. I feel they're doing it like this so they don't get the backlash of complaints.

I'm going to start the process of moving to Bigcommerce. The holidays are getting closer so I want to be ready. I can't do nothing with 1000 variants a day and not a way to increase that number.  

[Seahawksguy]

But bigcommerce might do the same too if it gets "big" no pun intended

[Robert_Tolmach1]

This is a disaster, and it is stunning that they did not bother letting anyone know. They say that they notified stores that already have more than 50k products, but the pricing page still claims "unlimited products." They did not tell the merchants with smaller stores that may be headed towards the limit and a train wreck.  The gurus still do not know about it. 

[Seahawksguy]

its not gurus they just know some areas in shopify we eventually will know too lol

[baracuda]

Hi there,

This is really a bad joke - I started some month ago to build my ecommerce on shopify and now it was for nothing? 

How should I do business if i'm only able to upload around 8-10 products per day?

Found anyone a solution or plans to move to another shop supplier?

Brgs,

Martin

[Peter_Rhodes]

Have you already added more than 50,000 variants to your site? If not, You don't have the 1000 variant/day cap yet. If so, your limit of the number of products you can add are all determined by how many variants each product has.

For Instance, if each product has 10 variants (or an average of 10), then you are looking at adding about 100 products per day.

[BarryOL]

Wow, Unbelievable! Bigcommerce and Volusion thanks you Shopify, Great Job! I can now only upload a maximum of 10 products a day, no longer make any bulk changes to product information efficiently and hope that I have no errors in my csv which I have to wait to fix the next day.

Such an ill thought out, poorly implemented and ultimately self-harming move by Shopify only serves to restrict hard working customers efforts, choke their progress and make them less competitive and responsive.

Unfortunately, we still have to temporarily put up with our Shopify site even though its now a dead man walking because of this change. We are making plans to move on from this toy eventually to a more credible option, most likely Magento.

The shopify.com website is also less than forthright, you may be able to have unlimited products, but only if you are extremely patient and persistent.

[Robert_Tolmach1]

They did not tell large stores, either. 

[Peter_Rhodes]

No, they did not. They slipped it into the documentation quietly and made no effort to warn users.

[boredwalk]

It gets worse. You can't bulk edit either via CSV any more. Definitely a new restriction because we used to do this from time to time. 

Just out of curiosity I duplicated product A. Product A has 10 variants. When I duplicated I gave it Product B's title (product B is new, but once I duplicate Product A to make Product B, Product B now exists). I then uploaded a CSV with only Product B in it and selected the "Replace any current products that have the same handle. Existing values will be used for any missing columns. Learn more" checkbox. That should have just "updated" Product B with the info in the CSV, it has the same 10 variant names as Product A and I was trying to update Product B.

I got the "Daily variant creation limit reached. Please try again later. See https://help.shopify.com/en/api/getting-started/api-call-limit for more information about rate limits and how to avoid them." error when I did that. So even updating existing products is now restricted for a catalog of 50k+ skus. 50k skus is not that many skus if you sell a product with variants. If you sold posters that come in 5 sizes and 10 frame options that is 50 variants per poster. If you have 5 collections of posters with 200 unique designs each that is 1,000 designs and with the 50 variants each you are at the limit. A store with 5 collections and 200 products per collection isn't even that wildly large of a store. That is only 1,000 parent products.

So now not only are you unable to use CSVs to bulk add products, you also can't bulk edit products because it throws the same error about API calls, even though I'm not using the API, I'm just using the CSV upload feature.

[DavisMK]

Yes i think when you upload in this manner it actually deletes the variant and creates a new one. 

We queried the fact that this is no longer an unlimited product as per their pricing page and they said:

"It is possible to have unlimited products on your store but if you have over 50,000 you can't upload them all in one go." which is not true. 

If i pay for the a year plan i have a limit of 365000 skus, and that is only if we upload exactly 1000 new ones a day as the limit doesn't roll over, if only upload products on weekdays then the limit is 261000

[Anthony_Gonzal1]

I just tried for the hell of it today and I was able to upload 2000+ variants today.

I don't know if anyone has tried or this is some temporary glitch. 

Let me know

[sidel]

Let's bump this. Email Tobi.

tobi@shopify.com

[Anthony_Gonzal1]

What should we tell him?

[sidel]

to change this crap! it's effecting peoples businesses. they could have easily offered an upgrade option for more space/bandwidth that doesn't require dishing out $2,000/mo and about $200,000 startup costs

https://paulnrogers.com/shopify-plus-pricing-cost-ownership/

• Average build cost for Shopify Plus (in my experience) – $60,000 – $200,000 (depending on SI you use, the scope of the project etc)
• Annual Shopify Plus licensing cost – starting at $24,000 per year (starts at $2k per month and increases based on you exceeding $800k turnover in a month. The additional fee is a % of the additional amount and it’s relatively competitive still)
• BAU development costs (in my experience) – $36,000 per year
• Third party services costs (e.g. NOSTO for personalisation, ShipperHQ for shipping, Klevu for search etc) – $7,200 peer year
• App costs (average) – $3,000 ($250 per month)

First Year Shopify Plus Cost: $130,200 – 270,200

Three Year Shopify Plus Cost of Ownership: $270,600 – $410,600

[sidel]

Purchase a new car? No. I need an unlimited rate limit which is standard on any other hosting site. So I have to pay shopify. 

[baracuda]

yeah it's really a pain, can't upload more than 20 products per day - as a fashion/accessoires store this is a huge busines breaker.

On other plattforms i'm able to upload up to 4000 products per day. How shall I be competitive against something like this? 

No chance. 

[normsky]

Hi, Im in the same boat here. Signed up very recently as Shopify seemed to be perfect. I have around 40 product types eg polo shirts, hoodies and on each of these I have around 400 designs that I embroider or print onto. 300K+ variants easy. 

I wish I knew this before spending the last week figuring the system out and splashing 180$ on a premium theme yesterday! Then I find out about the throttle limit today when my uploads are getting knocked back.

Cant believe this is not on the shopify sign up page when it clearly states unlimited inventory.

I hope I get a full refund here and for the premium theme as I certainly wouldnt have paid for it yesterday knowing I would need to spend the next 10 years uploading daily. Seriously peed off.

[baracuda]

Hi normsky,

Welcome on board! You are lucky you recognized this after some week. I already configured everything, did manual adjustment on templates, had ordered examples from different supplier ... spend a lot money and time and then got hit by this s!it. So i "enjoy" my daily uploads of 10-20 products, which is nothing compared to other plattform, especially if you are in the fashion business e.g. Spreadshirt.com with 25 Design daily up to 100 products per design within 1 hour uploaded and published. Had not the time to look up for another shop system without such business destroyer settings. Do you already know where you want to switch to?

Brgs,

Martin

[normsky]

Hi Martin, Aww man I feel your pain there mate, total nightmare. I certainly sucks and they wont be getting anymore of my business. I did intend to start other sites with Shopify but not anymore. I am looking at Bigcommerce as its unlimited, not ideal but little choice at this point in time. Do you have any feedback on Bigcommerce at all?

Thanks

Neil

[baracuda]

Hey Neil,

I checked BigCommerce too but if i'm not wrong they also have a limit, but it's at least around 2000 variants per day instead of 1000.

I'm not sure anymore so please check too, hope i am wrong. If not will start to build my business there too.

Brgs,

Martin

[Peter_Rhodes]

I know that most here are looking for a way out, but I posted this question yesterday, and followed up with my findings on the question, When does the API "day" for the resource limiter refresh?:

https://community.shopify.com/c/Shopify-Discussion/What-time-does-shopify-s-API-quot-day-quot-end/m-...

[EarlZyrtek]

I agree with everyone here, this limit is preposterous. I can't seem to find any way around it and unfortunately reading through the forums no one else has either. Does anyone have any information on this limit getting adjusted any time in the future? 1,000 per day seems completely arbitrary. Has anyone been able to get a temporary lift just to get an initial product set in there? But either way it seems like any sort of bulk updating after that is out of the question.

Really curious for updates as this thread is now several weeks old.

[CrimsonChannel]

When I ran into this issue in May I could still duplicate products. It's a pain, but try duplicating a product and editing it to suit your needs.

[madushann]

Does anyone knows this 1000 per day limit is only per variant creation or does that count any endpoint access (create/update/delete) ?

[Peter_Rhodes]

• The "1,000 new variants a day" limit only applies to standard Shopify accounts, and
• the "per day" limit is only applied to new variant additions.

The document here would apply: https://shopify.dev/concepts/about-apis/rate-limits#resource-based-rate-limits

There are rate limitations for other API calls, and the same document describes how they are restricted. 

GraphQL Admin queries are limited to a max of 1000 "cost", but this 1) clears out every 20 seconds and 2) applies to apps.

[YaketyMatt]

You could potentially adopt a platform such as the one we offer (see yakety.co.uk) and only use Shopify for the transaction itself. This is called "headless" commerce. You could create unlimited variations and still manage your finances through Shopify. If that would be of interest then I would be happy to discuss further, see my signature below for contact details.

[nk2304]

hi, i made a mistake and uploaded variatains of same t shirt as sapareted product and want to combin then to 1 and all variations in 1 but still getting 1000 limit even thugh they are not new and are in store

[nk2304]

hi,

how did you upload more than 1000 a day? i just learmed this issue after working for 5 month on designs for new store and noe it will take me ayear to upload with 1000 limit a day

[Robert_Tolmach1]

You MIGHT be able to get them to lift the limit for you. They will only entertain that when you hit your 50k limit. Worth a try!

[nk2304]

tried it they said NO which was very disappointing 

[nk2304]

so if i erase products and lets say i have only 30,000 in store i can upload 20,000 in 1 day ? 

[nk2304]

thank you for your reply so if i erase products and have only 35000 i can
upload 10000 a day?
thank you

[Robert_Tolmach1]

That seems like a question you should ask Shopify. They do have free chat support. Don't use it at night, though. It goes offshore, and that team is pretty inept.

[nk2304]

night you mean est time?
thank you