I’m planning to build an application that will integrate with Google Drive API. Since I’m new to working with this service, I want to understand what kind of limitations I might face during development.
What I’m curious about:
File transfer limits - How much data can I upload or download?
API call restrictions - Is there a maximum number of requests my application can make?
Other constraints - Are there any additional boundaries I should be aware of?
I want to make sure I design my app properly from the start so I don’t run into unexpected issues later. Has anyone worked with Google Drive API before and can share their experience with these limits?
Google Drive API has quotas you need to know about. You get 1,000 requests per 100 seconds per user by default, but you can request more if needed. Files can be up to 5TB, though bandwidth usually becomes the bottleneck first. When I built a backup tool, I had to use exponential backoff and batch operations to handle the rate limits. Also watch out for the 10,000 files per folder limit - it kills performance. The API docs mention these limits, but hitting them in real life taught me to build in retry logic and progress tracking from day one.
I’ve integrated Drive API into a document management system, and the quota structure is way more complex than it looks. You’ve got separate quotas for different operations - queries, uploads, and downloads all have different limits. The thing that really tripped me up was per-project vs per-user quotas. If you’re building a multi-tenant app, these limits hit your entire user base, not just individual users. The real pain isn’t the numbers themselves - it’s handling them gracefully. I had success with smart caching and being picky about which operations need immediate API calls vs what can wait. Also heads up - shared drives have completely different limitations than personal Drive storage, so plan for both if you need to support them.
for sure! the 1000 request limit can be tricky, especially with syncing large files or doing bulk uploads. but, as you said, the 5TB cap is usually enough for most folks. just be mindful of those rate limits when planning your dev schedule.