How are API calls counted?

[TomasZdvorily]

Hi all,

I'm using:

• Airtable as the main database
• Fillout connected to Airtable to get responses from users (about 250 fields)
• Softr as front-end to get list of filtered records, get record detail, and buttons to open Fillout form or start an automation (basically change the status field to be used as trigger to n8n)
• n8n for automating the data processing (mostly to generate PDF using PDFMonkey, I received data from Airtable in the trigger and just change the status field at the end)

My understanding (that was also confirmed by the support chatbot) is that:

• getting a list of records in Softr = 1 API call (I have only 8 records)
• getting a record detail in Softr = 1 API call
• one response in Fillout = 1 API call (maybe 2 or 3 as there is a lot of fields)
• automation trigger = 1 API call
• change the status from automation = 1 API call (changing just one field)
• etc.

If I test the solution - open list of records in Softr, get record detail, open Fillout, fill one response, start automation in n8n and finish it - I suppose to use about 10, max 20 API calls. But according to the workspace summary, I used about 1400 API Calls. How is that possible?

It seems my understanding of the API calls counting is wrong and I would like to know more details. Thank you!

Tomas

[angelikach]

It looks like the high API call count is due to each action triggering multiple calls behind the scenes, like data fetching, validation, or background processes. Even things like getting record details or submitting a form can use more calls than you might expect. I would suggest checking the logs or reaching out to support for a more detailed breakdown of how API calls are being counted