Discord rate limits and RestoreCord, explained

During verification

If Discord rate-limits the member's account or the bot, the verify page shows Rate limited, please try again later with error 10003. RestoreCord can't lift or shorten that limit. The recommended first step is to wait 60 minutes and try once. Limits can range from minutes to more than a day, and repeated clicks or extra tabs only extend them.

During member pulls

Adding members back uses Discord's add-member endpoint, one member per call. That's why a large pull completes gradually rather than instantly. RestoreCord itself adds no cooldown between pulls on any plan, Free included, and routes requests through proxies to reduce rate-limit pressure. The pace is set by:

For a big community, start conservatively and watch the first batch in the live log before speeding up.

Why not simply go as fast as possible? Discord applies its limits per bot and per route, and a bot that keeps hitting them gets slowed down further. A steady, slightly randomised pace usually finishes sooner than bursts followed by long forced pauses, and it keeps the bot healthy for the verifications that are still coming in while the pull runs.

Fewer calls, faster pulls

The surest way to finish a pull sooner is to make fewer add-member calls. Members who revoked the app can't be added anyway, and higher plans let you skip members you probably don't want back:

A smaller, better-targeted pull spends less time inside Discord's limits and brings back the members who actually mattered to the community. On Enterprise, several migrations can also be started from a single server.

On the RestoreCord API

The RestoreCord REST API applies its own limits. When you exceed them, the response is HTTP 429 with the error code RATE_LIMITED and a Retry-After header in seconds. A small wrapper handles it cleanly:

async function callRestoreCord(url, init, attempt = 0) {
  const res = await fetch(url, init);
  if (res.status !== 429 || attempt >= 3) return res;

  // RATE_LIMITED: honour Retry-After, then back off further on each retry
  const wait = Number(res.headers.get("Retry-After") ?? 1) * 1000 * (attempt + 1);
  await new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, wait));
  return callRestoreCord(url, init, attempt + 1);
}

Two habits keep integrations out of trouble. First, cache what doesn't change often, such as server lists and settings, instead of fetching them before every call. Second, spread scheduled jobs out: a script that refreshes ten servers at the same second on the hour will hit limits that the same work spread over a few minutes never would. API keys can also be limited to an IP or CIDR allowlist, so a leaked key can't be used to burn your limits from elsewhere.

Authentication details for the API are in RestoreCord's API keys guide. Back to the technical overview, or read about the scopes that make pulls possible.