ulk API hits cost-based rate limits but single API doesn't — how to create 100K issues efficiently

[Satyanarayana]

Background: We are building an enterprise IAM provisioning system that needs to create Jira issues at scale (100K–500K per run).

What we observed:

Single API (POST /rest/api/2/issue) — 100K calls, 1 ticket each:

• 8 concurrent workers, ~5 tickets/second
• Zero rate limits hit ✓
• Completes 100K in ~5.5 hours

Bulk API (POST /rest/api/2/issue/bulk) — 2,000 calls, 50 tickets each:

• Same 8 workers
• Hits jira-cost-based 429 after ~1,500 tickets ✗
• Much slower due to constant 3-minute wait cycles

The paradox: Bulk API makes 50x FEWER API calls (2,000 vs 100,000) but hits rate limits much faster.

Questions:

1. Why does bulk API cost significantly more per ticket than single API on the same account?
2. Is jira-cost-based limit specific to the bulk endpoint only?
3. Is there any way to create 100K issues in minutes (not hours) without hitting rate limits?
4. Does upgrading from Standard → Premium/Enterprise plan increase the cost-based limit enough to handle 100K bulk in one run?
5. Is there a provisioning-specific API or approach recommended for enterprise-scale bulk issue creation?

Account: issquaredinc.atlassian.net (Standard/Trial plan)

Headers from 429 response:

Ratelimit-Reason: jira-cost-based
X-Ratelimit-Limit: 300000
X-Ratelimit-Remaining: 0
ResetAt: [next hour]

[Arkadiusz Wroblewski]

Hello @Satyanarayana 

This looks like Duplicate Topic from yesterday.

Cost-based rate limit prevents enterprise IAM bulk...

@Tomislav Tobijas  and @C_Faysal _CFcon_ already helping you in your other/same question.

It would be best to continue the discussion there, so the context stays in one place.

Best,

Arkadiusz🤠