"Rate limit exceeded" when ading participants to Google calendar event

Hi ​@Mashauri ,

The error “Rate limit exceeded” isn’t related to Google’s general participant/invite limits (which are much higher, as you mentioned), but rather to Google Calendar’s API rate limits. When Zapier sends participant data to Google, each invite counts as an API call. If multiple calls happen too quickly in a single Zap run, Google can temporarily throttle and reject some of them, even if the total number of invites is small.

A few things you can try:

1. Batch participants in one step, Instead of sending multiple separate “Create/Update Event” actions for each participant, try passing all attendees as a single array of emails into one Google Calendar action. That way Zapier only makes one API request instead of many.

   • Reference: developers.google.com/calendar/api/v3/reference/events

2. Add a short delay, If you must add attendees across multiple steps, use Zapier’s built-in delay step between event actions so Google doesn’t see them as a burst of requests.

3. Check for retries, Sometimes Zapier retries failed requests, which can trigger the same error if Google is still enforcing throttling. Reviewing Zap History for the exact error timing can help confirm this.

Unfortunately, this is more about Google API’s throttling than Zapier itself. If batching or delaying doesn’t resolve it, you may need to contact Google Workspace support with the request IDs from the failed Zap runs so they can confirm whether your account is hitting per-second quotas.

Hi ​@Mashauri 

Try adding a Delay After Queue step to the Zap to space out the Zap Run step processing.

Delay help: https://zapier.com/apps/delay/integrations#help

Also, turn ON Autoreplay: https://help.zapier.com/hc/en-us/articles/19220226086797-What-is-replay#h_01H9KBC1HMW07HTC6EC7NBTENH

Hi there ​@Mashauri 👋 How did you get on with the suggestions from Ashar Malik Easyaiz and Troy - did either of those approaches help get things sorted?

Want to make sure you’re all set, so keep us in the loop on how it’s going! 🙂