Do Facebook Graph API calls using field expansion count differently against the rate limits than batch calls

10
votes

I am looking to optimize my Facebook app.

Today I make a batch call with four graph API calls:

/me
/me/friends
/me/likes
/me/feed

If I change this to a single graph API call using field expansion like this:

/me?fields=id,name,username,friends,likes,feed

Will that now count as one hit against the API instead of four for rate limiting purposes?

3
facebookfacebook-graph-apilimitfacebook-field-expansion
Yes, it should, everything else would make little sense. - CBroe
I agree that this seems obvious, but the FB rate limiting is pretty opaque, so I'd just like to hear the FB folks validate the assumption. - Rich Sutton
Your second call is a single API call. You aren't using field expansion in it. - cpilko
Ah thx cpilko ... that's true even when the "fields" are connections (friends, likes, feed)? - Rich Sutton
@CBroe I do understand your answer, i thought exactly the same! However after some digging on the Facebook developers website I found out that each api call in the batch is counted, see answer below. - Kevin Vermaat

3 Answers

3
votes

Unfortunately, each call in the batch is counted as an api call, it's just faster to call them within a batch since it will be 1 request. See here documentation on Facebook API:

Limits
We currently limit the number of requests which can be in a batch to 50, but each call within the batch is counted separately for the purposes of calculating API call limits and resource limits. For example, a batch of 10 API calls will count as 10 calls and each call within the batch contributes to CPU resource limits in the same manner.

Source: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/api/batch/

2
votes

Based on real-world testing, I've found that field expansion can count for multiple uses under the rate limit. For example, starting from a quiet state, a sequence of 63 field-expanded calls to a single api (graph.facebook.com/IDENTITY/posts) brought us to the 600 call rate limit.

0
votes

According to the Facebook Docs,

The Field Expansion feature of the Graph API, allows you to effectively "join" multiple graph queries into a single call.

So your queries above would represent four calls in the Batch form, and one call in the Field Expanded form.

As I noted in a comment above: A batch sends multiple-but-not-necessarily-related queries to Facebook in a single request. Field expansion is like doing joins in SQL through a single query.