BigCommerce API: the 20k requests per hour limit is per store, shared by all keys

TL;DR

Spread large order and catalog syncs across the hour window, and if you run multiple integrations on one store, coordinate their call volume against the single shared budget.

Steps

1. When you plan bulk pulls against the BigCommerce API, budget against the store, not the key. The 20k requests per hour ceiling is shared by every API key on the store, so adding more keys or parallel workers does not raise it. Spread large order and catalog syncs across the hour window, and if you run multiple integrations on one store, coordinate their call volume against the single shared budget.

When to use

You are seeing this: When you plan bulk pulls against the BigCommerce API, budget against the store, not the key. Use this skill when you run into "BigCommerce API: the 20k requests per hour limit is per store, shared by all keys".

When not to use

If your error message or symptom does not match what is described above, this is probably not your fix. Search for your exact error text instead of forcing this one to fit.

Versions

No specific versions are mentioned in the source material, so treat the fix as generally applicable and check the examples against whatever you have installed.

Why this happens

The original report does not dig into a root cause. It documents the symptom and the fix that resolved it.

Source: Stack Overflow #17971576 (accepted answer, 4 votes): the asker pulled order and product data for stores with 20k+ orders and wanted to know the per-API call limits. BigCommerce support confirmed the 20k requests per hour limit applies to the store as a whole and is shared across all API keys on that store.

Verified resolution: When you plan bulk pulls against the BigCommerce API, budget against the store, not the key. The 20k requests per hour ceiling is shared by every API key on the store, so adding more keys or parallel workers does not raise it. Spread large order and catalog syncs across the hour window, and if you run multiple integrations on one store, coordinate their call volume against the single shared budget.

Source URL: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17971576/does-bigcommerce-have-any-restriction-on-number-of-api-calls-made-from-one-api-key-or