Intuit · Rate Limits

Intuit Rate Limits

Intuit enforces throttling on the QuickBooks Online (QBO) API per realm (company file) and per app, with separate caps for production and sandbox. Limits are documented at the app/realm scope; bursts beyond the cap return HTTP 429 with a Retry-After signal. QuickBooks Payments and Payroll APIs follow similar per-app throttling enforced at Intuit's gateway.

5 Limits Throttle: 429
Rate LimitingAccountingFinancialSmall Business

Limits

QuickBooks Online API (per realm, production) realm
requests_per_minute · minute
500
500 requests per minute per realm (company file).
QuickBooks Online API (per app, production) app
concurrent_requests
10
Up to 10 concurrent requests per app, per realm.
QuickBooks Online API (sandbox) realm
requests_per_minute · minute
500
Sandbox shares the 500/min/realm cap; do not load-test in sandbox.
QuickBooks Payments API app
requests_per_second · second
10
Standard cap is around 10 RPS per app; adjustments via support.
Batch endpoint realm
requests_per_minute · minute
40
Batch requests count against the per-realm minute cap and the batch endpoint enforces a separate 40 batch-requests/minute ceiling.

Policies

Backoff
On 429, honor the Retry-After header and back off exponentially with jitter.
Idempotency
For payment and transactional writes, use the RequestId / Idempotency-Key supported by the Payments API to safely retry.
Realm scope
Throttle counters reset per realm + per app pair; multi-tenant apps should rotate across realms to avoid hot-spotting.
Raise via support
For sustained higher throughput, contact Intuit Developer Support; raises are case-by-case.

Sources