Aggressive polling in n8n
Why polling intervals under 1 minute can overwhelm your workflows and external APIs
What is this issue?
Aggressive polling occurs when a trigger or scheduled workflow runs too frequently—typically under 1 minute intervals. This can cause queue pile-ups, race conditions, and API rate limit exhaustion.
Signs of over-polling:
•Cron trigger set to every 10-30 seconds•Poll trigger with < 1 minute interval•Multiple workflows polling the same service simultaneously•Execution queue constantly backing up
Why is this dangerous?
Queue pile-ups
If polling is faster than processing, executions accumulate and n8n slows down.
Rate limit exhaustion
External APIs will return 429 errors when you poll too frequently.
Race conditions
Overlapping executions can process the same data twice or create conflicts.
Increased costs
More executions mean higher n8n resource usage and API call costs.
How to fix it
- 1
Increase polling interval
Set polling to 1 minute minimum. Most use cases work fine with 5-15 minute intervals.
- 2
Use webhooks instead
If the service supports webhooks, switch to push-based triggers instead of polling.
- 3
Add execution locks
Use workflow settings or external locks to prevent overlapping executions.
- 4
Monitor queue depth
Set up alerting when execution queue grows too large, indicating you need to slow down.
Scan your workflow now
Upload your n8n workflow JSON and detect triggers with aggressive polling intervals.