ProductSet mutation queryCost on Shopify’s GraphQL API appears to have increased from ~15–30 to >100 in the past week, slowing an Azure timer-based nightly sync (API version 2024-10) of ~4,000 products. The higher cost reduces throughput to about 2 items/second, pushing total sync time toward ~1 hour and exceeding Azure’s 10-minute function limit.
Shopify confirmed this was a deliberate pricing adjustment due to ProductSet’s complexity (creates or updates products and supports up to 2,000 variants). They are considering making ProductSet’s cost more dynamic based on operation complexity, subject to additional factors.
Plan-related rate limits are not the cause; the merchant remains on the Basic plan.
Suggested workaround: use established non-Set mutations (query to check existence, then create or update). Shopify stated those mutation costs have not changed, though this approach is less convenient and may require more calls.
No rollback or immediate fix was announced. The thread remains open, with user frustration noted and Shopify emphasizing that mutation cost changes are rare.
Summarized with AI on December 23.
AI used: gpt-5.
Ive just built an Azure timer triggered functions (fired once per day every day at 1.30am) to synchronise shopify to another inventory system via the GraphQl api.
I have to use productSet mutation as it seems to be the only mutation that can update or create products in one call. However when I first built the function it was initially running with a querycost of around 20 - 30 which enabled me to synchronise approx 4000 products in under 9 minutes (Azure limits functions to 10minutes).
Now for some reason in the last few days it seems the queryCost has increased to 100??? This means I can only synchronise 2 items per second which would take nearly an hour to sychronise fully, not to mention having to upgrade Azure to be able to run longer than 10 minutes.
Nope no change to plans, have always been on the Basic plan. Really keen to know what’s caused this so thanks for the update. In a nutshell ProductSet mutation queryCost for exactly the same data seems to have increased from around 15 - 20 to >100 within the last week or so?
Thank you for reaching out. As you noted, ProductSet is unique in its ability to both create and update products while accommodating up to 2,000 variants. Due to this complexity, we have decided to adjust its pricing accordingly.
Looking ahead, we are considering making ProductSet more dynamic to account for varying complexities, but this will depend on several additional factors.
I hear you. Generally we dont adjust mutation cost often at all.
Our <>Set mutations are a recent capability we added to improve DX by avoiding the need to perform query the check if exist then create or update.
Those are much more established mutations and we have not changed their cost.
You could consider using them to maintain velocity of the sync, but as mentioned, it would be less convenient.