A practical guide to Gorgias API rate limits

Gorgias is a fantastic helpdesk for e-commerce brands, there's no question about it. But if you're trying to grow, the real power comes from connecting it to other tools using its API. That’s how you get into advanced automation and build custom workflows that give your team some time back. But, as many scaling businesses find out, there's a common speed bump that can stop you in your tracks: Gorgias API rate limits.

If that term makes you want to close this tab, hang on. This guide will walk you through what these limits are, how they can actually affect your business, and how modern AI tools can help you build the automations you need without the technical headaches.

What are Gorgias API rate limits?

Before we dive into how these limits can cause problems, let's get the basic definition out of the way so we're all on the same page.

The Gorgias API: Your key to integration

Think of an API (Application Programming Interface) as a translator that lets different software programs talk to each other. The Gorgias API is what lets you do cool things outside the normal Gorgias dashboard, like automatically creating tickets, syncing customer info with your CRM, or building custom reports. It's the key to turning Gorgias into the central hub for your entire support setup.

The rate limit: A cap on API calls

Now, imagine that translator can only speak so many words per minute. That's pretty much what a rate limit is. It’s a cap on how many requests (or "calls") your app can make to the Gorgias API in a certain amount of time.

Gorgias uses a system called the "leaky bucket algorithm." It’s a helpful visual: picture a bucket with a small hole in it. Every API request you make adds a drop of water to the bucket. At the same time, water is constantly leaking out at a set rate. If you start adding drops too fast, the bucket overflows. When that happens, any new requests are simply rejected until the water level drops.

In real terms, the specific limits are:

• OAuth2 apps: 80 requests per 20-second window.

• API key integrations: 40 requests per 20-second window.

This isn't about how much data is in each request, just the raw number of requests you're making. And as you'll see, it's surprisingly easy to burn through them.

The real-world impact of Gorgias API rate limits on your business

Okay, so a 20-second window and a few dozen requests. What's the big deal? If you're running a small shop, it might not be. But for a growing e-commerce brand, these technical limits can create some very real business headaches.

Problems with bulk data operations

Ever tried to move your support history from an old helpdesk into Gorgias? Or run a big export of tickets to analyze trends? These are exactly the kinds of tasks that hit a wall. A simple export of a few thousand tickets can easily trip the rate limit, causing the whole process to fail or just drag on for hours while your script waits, retries, and waits some more. You'll get to know the "429 Too Many Requests" error pretty well.

Delays in real-time syncing

Lots of businesses depend on real-time data to give customers a great experience. Maybe you sync customer info from Gorgias to a CRM or connect it to your inventory system. When a flash sale goes live and ticket volume spikes, your integration can get throttled by the API limit. This creates out-of-sync data, meaning your agents might be looking at an outdated order information. It’s a recipe for confusion and frustration for everyone involved.

A bottleneck for smart automation

This is the big one. Genuinely helpful automation often needs to take several steps to resolve a single ticket. For example, an AI agent might need to:

1. Look up order details in Shopify.

2. Check the customer’s ticket history in Gorgias.

3. Add a specific tag.

4. Assign the ticket to the right person.

5. Post a reply.

Each one of those steps can use up an API call. The Gorgias API rate limits can stop your automations from getting the information they need to work properly, forcing you to either scale back your plans or settle for slower, less effective workflows.

How to work within Gorgias API rate limits

If you're already feeling the squeeze from these limits, there are a few common strategies developers use to manage them.

Monitoring API usage

First things first, you need to know where you stand. The Gorgias API is actually quite helpful here, because it returns information in every response telling you how close you are to the limit. Developers can check the "X-Gorgias-Account-Api-Call-Limit" header to see their current usage and the "Retry-After" header to know how long to wait before trying a failed request again. It lets you build more robust integrations, but it also adds more complexity.

Common workarounds and their downsides

Most solutions involve making your code a bit smarter, but this always comes with trade-offs.

• Implement exponential backoff: This is a coding tactic where, if a request fails, the script waits a moment before retrying. If it fails again, it waits a little longer, and so on. It works, but it makes your code more complicated to write and maintain.

• Queueing requests: Instead of sending a flood of API calls all at once, you can put them in a line (a queue) and have a separate process work through them at a slower pace, making sure you stay under the 20-second limit.

• Using third-party workflow tools: Some platforms like Parabola can help manage data flows between different apps. They can be useful, but they also mean another monthly subscription and another piece of software in your tech stack.

The main thing to remember is that these are all reactive measures. They require ongoing developer attention and can make your systems more fragile. They don't fix the underlying problem: your business is ready for a more serious approach to automation.

These workarounds are what you have to do when you're building everything yourself. A managed AI integration platform, on the other hand, deals with all this for you. This is where a solution like eesel AI becomes incredibly helpful, as it’s designed to work smoothly with helpdesk APIs without you ever having to touch the code.

A modern alternative to managing Gorgias API rate limits

It’s helpful to reframe the problem. Constantly hitting API limits isn't the real issue; it's a symptom that your automation needs are growing up. The problem is relying on custom-coded scripts for functions that are becoming more and more important to your business.

How a dedicated AI platform solves the bottleneck

Instead of building and maintaining your own tangle of API calls, you can use a specialized AI layer that integrates directly with your helpdesk. This platform becomes the engine for all your automation, managing the technical details for you.

• One-click integration: A platform like eesel AI connects to Gorgias in just a few minutes. There's no complicated API setup to deal with or code to write. It's a world away from the developer-heavy workarounds we just talked about.

• Efficient and optimized actions: eesel AI's AI Agent is built to handle complex workflows efficiently. You can set up a multi-step process like "look up order status, tag as 'Return Request', and assign to the returns team" in a simple, visual editor. Then, eesel AI handles all the API communication in the background. You get the power of custom automation without the headache of managing rate limits.

A workflow diagram showing how an AI platform like eesel AI manages complex, multi-step automations without being constrained by Gorgias API rate limits.

• Unify all your knowledge: The best AI doesn't just look at your helpdesk. eesel AI can connect to all of your company knowledge at once, from your help center and past tickets to internal wikis in Confluence or Google Docs. Trying to build a system that could pull from all those sources with custom scripts, all while juggling API rate limits, would be a huge and expensive project. With a unified platform, it’s just part of the setup.

Gorgias pricing overview

When you're thinking about your support tools, it's good to understand the full cost. Here’s a quick look at Gorgias's pricing structure.

Gorgias's pricing scales with your ticket volume, and many of the advanced features you might want for deeper integrations are only on the higher-tier plans. It’s worth comparing this to eesel AI's transparent pricing, which is based on AI interactions, not your total ticket count. This gives you predictable costs that don't go up just because you're getting more popular.

Automate smarter and overcome Gorgias API rate limits

Gorgias API rate limits are a technical reality, but they don't have to be a roadblock for your business. While manual workarounds and custom code can get you by for a while, they aren't a sustainable path forward for a growing e-commerce brand.

Using a dedicated AI automation platform frees your team from the cycle of managing code, fixing errors, and worrying about limits. It lets you focus on what really matters: designing and delivering a fantastic customer experience.

Ready to stop worrying about API limits and start using powerful, hassle-free AI? eesel AI integrates seamlessly with Gorgias to automate your support. Start your free trial today.