"api quota exceeded" with Google Maps block :'(

[Barnaby_Bracham]

Hello,

I just enabled the pro version of Airtable in order to use the Maps block.

I have about 6000 rows, each with an address. After working (quite slowly) to add the first few hundred addresses to the map, the block stopped and displayed the message “API quota exceeded. Click to retry”.

If I retry right away, it runs blank for a while then displays the message again. If I wait a bit before clicking, it will start adding a handful of addresses.

I’ve still got about 5000 rows to go and can’t really afford to come back and click for every 5 addresses that are added. How can I get all my addresses properly added ? Where is the limit coming from ?

[openside]

Hi Barnaby, the api has pretty strict limits of 5 calls per second. And once its hit it disallows any api calls for 30 seconds. I would think their own blocks should be able to work around that api limit, but apparently not :(.

They say: “If the current rate limits don’t support your use case, we’d love to hear about it to learn more. Please contact us at api@airtable.com.”

Good luck. I’m hoping they increase that limit as it is pretty small limit.

[Stephen_Suen]

Hi @Barnaby_Brachamul:

Stephen from the Blocks team here. The error you’re seeing is actually coming from Google’s Geocoding API quotas (not the Airtable API). You can read Google’s support documentation for more information, but here are the limits:

2,500 free requests per day, calculated as the sum of client-side and server-side queries.
50 requests per second, calculated as the sum of client-side and server-side queries.

Note that these limits are per Google API key, not per block. If you want to exceed these quotas, you can enable pay-as-you-go billing on Google’s end.

Happy to continue this conversation via email if you have any other concerns. You can shoot us a message at support@airtable.com and we’ll help you diagnose the issue further.

[Barnaby_Bracham]

Thank you very much for your swift reply.

So hopefully if I hang around for a couple of days, I’ll be fine? This is ok for my use case, I don’t need the mapping urgently.

If there’s a 2500 limit, why is it that the block got stuck after about 800 attempts ? Does it require about 4 calls per map pin ?

[openside]

ah, my bad Stephen for my assumption it was Airtable limit :slightly_smiling_face:

[Stephen_Suen]

Yes, the rest of your addresses should get geocoded over the next few days.

I’m not sure why only 800 requests went through, we’d need more information to figure out why that’s the case. Please email us at the address above so we can continue the conversation there.