Canva Rate Limits

Canva Rate Limits

Overview

The Canva Connect API enforces per-user, per-endpoint rate limits. Each endpoint has different thresholds. A 429 response means you must wait before retrying.

Canva Connect API Rate Limits

All limits are per user of your integration unless noted otherwise.

Exponential Backoff with Jitter

async function canvaRequestWithBackoff<T>(
  fn: () => Promise<T>,
  config = { maxRetries: 5, baseDelayMs: 1000, maxDelayMs: 60000 }
): Promise<T> {
  for (let attempt = 0; attempt <= config.maxRetries; attempt++) {
    try {
      return await fn();
    } catch (error: any) {
      if (attempt === config.maxRetries) throw error;

      // Only retry on 429 or 5xx
      const status = error.status || error.response?.status;
      if (status !== 429 && (status < 500 || status >= 600)) throw error;

      // Honor Retry-After header if present
      const retryAfter = error.headers?.get?.('Retry-After');
      const delay = retryAfter
        ? parseInt(retryAfter) * 1000
        : Math.min(
            config.baseDelayMs * Math.pow(2, attempt) + Math.random() * 1000,
            config.maxDelayMs
          );

      console.warn(`Rate limited (attempt ${attempt + 1}/${config.maxRetries}). Waiting ${(delay / 1000).toFixed(1)}s`);
      await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, delay));
    }
  }
  throw new Error('Unreachable');
}

Queue-Based Rate Limiting

import PQueue from 'p-queue';

// Match per-user endpoint limits
const canvaQueues = {
  designs: new PQueue({ concurrency: 1, interval: 3000, intervalCap: 1 }),     // ~20/min
  exports: new PQueue({ concurrency: 1, interval: 4000, intervalCap: 1 }),     // ~15/min (conservative)
  assets:  new PQueue({ concurrency: 1, interval: 2000, intervalCap: 1 }),     // ~30/min
  reads:   new PQueue({ concurrency: 3, interval: 1000, intervalCap: 3 }),     // ~100/min (shared reads)
};

// Usage — automatically queued to stay under limits
const design = await canvaQueues.designs.add(() =>
  client.createDesign({ design_type: { type: 'custom', width: 1080, height: 1080 }, title: 'Queued' })
);

// Batch export with rate control
const designIds = ['DAV1', 'DAV2', 'DAV3', 'DAV4', 'DAV5'];
const exports = await Promise.all(
  designIds.map(id =>
    canvaQueues.exports.add(() =>
      client.createExport({ design_id: id, format: { type: 'pdf' } })
    )
  )
);

Rate Limit Monitor

class CanvaRateLimitTracker {
  private windows: Map<string, { count: number; resetAt: number }> = new Map();

  track(endpoint: string, response: Response): void {
    const remaining = response.headers.get('X-RateLimit-Remaining');
    const reset = response.headers.get('X-RateLimit-Reset');

    if (remaining !== null) {
      this.windows.set(endpoint, {
        count: parseInt(remaining),
        resetAt: reset ? parseInt(reset) * 1000 : Date.now() + 60000,
      });
    }
  }

  shouldThrottle(endpoint: string): boolean {
    const window = this.windows.get(endpoint);
    if (!window) return false;
    return window.count < 3 && Date.now() < window.resetAt;
  }

  getWaitMs(endpoint: string): number {
    const window = this.windows.get(endpoint);
    if (!window) return 0;
    return Math.max(0, window.resetAt - Date.now());
  }

  report(): Record<string, { remaining: number; resetsIn: string }> {
    const report: Record<string, any> = {};
    for (const [ep, w] of this.windows) {
      report[ep] = {
        remaining: w.count,
        resetsIn: `${Math.max(0, (w.resetAt - Date.now()) / 1000).toFixed(0)}s`,
      };
    }
    return report;
  }
}

Proactive Throttling

// Wrap the client to throttle before hitting limits
async function throttledCanvaRequest<T>(
  tracker: CanvaRateLimitTracker,
  endpoint: string,
  fn: () => Promise<T>
): Promise<T> {
  if (tracker.shouldThrottle(endpoint)) {
    const waitMs = tracker.getWaitMs(endpoint);
    console.log(`Proactively waiting ${waitMs}ms for ${endpoint}`);
    await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, waitMs));
  }
  return fn();
}

Error Handling

Resources

• API Requests & Responses
• p-queue

Next Steps

For security configuration, see canva-security-basics.