Firebase Cloud Messaging errorFCM “QUOTA_EXCEEDED” (429, RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED)

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Which limit you hit, and the fix

1. 01

   A burst over the project’s per-minute quota

   “The default quota of 600k messages per minute covers over 99% of FCM developers while protecting the stability of the system and minimizing the impact of spiky projects.” Firebase, Throttling and quotas

   Sending to your whole user list in one loop can push past the project quota in a minute. Queue the sends and release them at a steady rate. When a 429 comes back, wait and retry; the quota refills in the next minute.

2. 02

   Retrying right away

   “Use exponential backoff with a minimum initial delay of 1 minute to retry rejected messages.” Firebase, FCM ErrorCode (QUOTA_EXCEEDED)

   Retrying a rejected message at once lands in the same full minute and fails again. Firebase asks for backoff that starts at a minute and grows each time. Note the quota minutes are not aligned to the clock, so do not wait for :00.

   import { getMessaging } from 'firebase-admin/messaging';
   
   async function sendWithBackoff(message, attempt = 0) {
     try {
       return await getMessaging().send(message);
     } catch (err) {
       const rateCodes = ['messaging/message-rate-exceeded', 'messaging/device-message-rate-exceeded', 'messaging/topics-message-rate-exceeded'];
       if (!rateCodes.includes(err.code) || attempt >= 5) throw err;
       const delay = 60_000 * 2 ** attempt + Math.random() * 5_000;
       await new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, delay));
       return sendWithBackoff(message, attempt + 1);
     }
   }

3. 03

   Dead tokens using up the quota

   “Client errors (HTTP status code 400-499) are counted (excluding 429s).” Firebase, Throttling and quotas

   Sends to uninstalled apps fail with 404 UNREGISTERED, and those failures still count. A list full of old tokens wastes part of every minute’s quota and raises your error ratio, which also blocks a quota increase. Delete tokens that come back UNREGISTERED.

4. 04

   Too many messages to one device

   “For Android, you can send up to 240 messages per minute and 5,000 messages per hour to a single device.” Firebase, Throttling and quotas

   A bug that sends in a loop, or a burst of chat messages, can hit the per-device limit. On iOS the limit is Apple’s, and Firebase returns an error when you exceed it. Send fewer, more useful notifications and collapse updates into one.

Checked against the vendor’s docs on November 12, 2026: Firebase docs: Throttling and quotas; Firebase docs: FCM HTTP v1 ErrorCode; Firebase docs: Best practices for FCM registration token management.

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Related: FCM registration token not registered · Firestore quota exceeded · Firebase auth/quota-exceeded · FCM SENDER_ID_MISMATCH