Compute Engine concurrent operation limits

This document lists the in-flight operation limits for Compute Engine.

Concurrent operation limits

Concurrent operation limits define the number of in-flight or concurrent operations at any point of time. Any API request that creates, modifies, or deletes a Compute Engine resource is subject to a concurrent operation limit check to ensure that the total number of in-flight operations at any point of time does not exceed the limit specified for that operation.

Concurrent operation limit exceeded error

If your project exceeds the concurrent operation limit for any in-flight operation, you receive a 403 error with the reason rateLimitExceeded.

The API response body of the error looks similar to the following:

{
  "code": 403,
    "message": "Rate Limit Exceeded",
    "errors": [
      {
        "message": "Rate Limit Exceeded",
        "domain": "usageLimits",
        "reason": "rateLimitExceeded"
      }
    ],
    "details": [
      {
        ...
        "metadata": {
          “containerType”: PROJECT|ORGANIZATION,
          "containerId": “PROJECT_ID|ORGANIZATION_ID”,
          "location": "REGION"
        }
      },
      {
        ...
        "links": [
          {
            "description": "Concurrent operations quota documentation.",
            "url": https://cloud.google.com/compute/operations-quota
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "message": "Quota on concurrent operations exceeded for project PROJECT_ID in location REGION.",
          }
        ]
        ...
}

The REGION in the message field of the response represents a region (for example, us-central1) for operations that consume regional or zonal limits. For in-flight operations that consume global limits, the following message appears:

"message": "Quota on concurrent operations exceeded for project PROJECT_ID.

See the limits for in-flight operations and best practices for reducing these quota errors.

Operation groups and limits

This section describes the limits for various Compute Engine in-flight or concurrent operations.

Global operations and limits

Concurrent global operations consume a global limit that is specified for a project. The following table lists the global limits for in-flight operations:

Operation Description Limit
All global methods Limits the total number of concurrent global operations for a project. 8000 in-flight operations per project
routes.insert Limits the number of concurrent route creations in a project. 200 in-flight route creations per project
routes.delete Limits the number of concurrent route delete operations in a project. 400 in-flight delete route operations per project
firewalls.insert Limits the number of concurrent firewall creations in a project. 400 in-flight create firewall operations per project
firewalls.delete Limits the number of concurrent firewall deletions in a project. 400 in-flight delete firewall operations per project
snapshots.insert Limits the number of concurrent snapshot creations in a project. 8000 in-flight create snapshot operations per project
snapshots.delete Limits the number of concurrent snapshot deletions in a project. 4000 in-flight delete snapshot operations per project

Regional and zonal operation limits

The following limits apply to the specified operations for a project in a region and its zones:

Operation Description Limit
All regional methods Limits the total number of concurrent operations for a project in a region and its zones. 8000 in-flight operations per project per region.
instances.insert Limits the number of concurrent instance creation operations for a project in a region. 8000 in-flight instance insert operations per project per region
instances.delete Limits the number of concurrent instance delete operations for a project in a region. 8000 in-flight instance delete operations per project per region
disks.insert Limits the number of concurrent disk creations for a project in a region. 1500 in-flight create disk operations per project per region

Best practices

The following checklist summarizes the best practices for reducing insufficient concurrent operation limit errors:

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