Google Ads script limits: execution time, accounts and quotas

Google Ads scripts run inside limits set by Google. Most scripts never notice them; large accounts and manager-level scripts do.

The limits that matter most

• Execution time: 30 minutes. A run that takes longer is stopped. Whatever it had not reached is not processed.
• Schedule: hourly at most.
• Parallel accounts: 50 per run. A manager script using executeInParallel can process up to 50 client accounts in one execution.
• Entities per selector: 50,000. An iterator returns at most that many campaigns, keywords or other entities; larger sets need a report query instead.
• Daily quotas apply to sending email, calling external URLs and working with spreadsheets.

Signs you are hitting a limit

• Runs end with a time-out message.
• The script succeeds but later accounts or campaigns are never touched.
• Run times creep towards 30 minutes as an account grows.

Designing around them

• Query, do not iterate. One AdsApp.search() query that returns the rows you need is far faster than looping through entities and asking each for statistics.
• Filter early. Put conditions in the query — enabled only, with impressions, in the date range — instead of filtering in JavaScript.
• Batch changes. Use bulk operations rather than changing entities one at a time.
• Split the work. Process a slice of campaigns or accounts per run and continue next time, using labels to remember what is done.
• Run at manager level in parallel rather than one account after another.

Watching for it

chiliad records the duration of every run and warns when a script's runs approach the 30-minute limit, so you can act before it starts cutting off. See How to fix a Google Ads script that times out.