I need to update 500 records, my flow takes an hour
Almost every API has a batch endpoint that takes 50 or 100 records per call. Looping one-by-one costs 500 calls, batching does the same in 5 or 10. Quota, rate limiting and runtime get a lot better.
Try this first
- 1Check the docs for /bulk, /batch or /multipart endpoints, or a GraphQL mutation that accepts an array.
- 2Build the flow with an aggregator step (Make has Array Aggregator, n8n has Item Lists, Zapier has Looping) that groups rows into batches.
- 3Keep batch size under the API cap, often 100 or 250 per call. Too large gives 413 or timeouts, too small wastes calls.
- 4Handle errors per batch separately: if one record in a batch fails some APIs roll back the whole batch, others return per-record status.
- 5Keep a log of success and failure records, otherwise you don't know which to retry after a partial failure.
When to bring us in
If your source API has no batch and you handle thousands of records daily, we can look at staging via a dedicated DB with flush.
See also
- n8n: self-host or cloud?Self-hosted is cheaper at volume and keeps data local. Cloud removes ops burden.
- Zapier or Make: which fits better?Zapier is straight-line; Make handles complex flows with routers and iterators for less money.
- Power Automate Cloud or Desktop: which to use?Cloud for SaaS integrations and triggers. Desktop for RPA against legacy Windows apps without APIs.
None of the above fits?
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