Max number of actions per flow in Power Automate
As a short answer: Power Automate supports up to 500 actions in a single flow, including steps like conditions, loops, API calls, data parsing, and variable operations, and the recommended max for performance is Keep under 300 when possible.
While 500 actions is the hard technical limit, real-world performance may start to degrade well before you reach that number. Here's why:
- Each additional action increases the total time the flow takes to run.
- More steps mean more points of failure, especially if you're working with external systems that may occasionally be unavailable.
- Complex flows are harder to maintain and troubleshoot, especially when issues happen mid-execution or when nested conditions are involved.
See also Limits of automated, scheduled, and instant flows
Best Practices for Managing Large and Complex Flows in Power Automate
To stay within the limit and ensure your flow remains reliable, follow these best practices:
1) Modularize using Child Flows
Break your large flow into smaller, reusable child flows using the “Run a Child Flow” action. This improves performance, makes testing easier, and allows team members to reuse logic across solutions.
2) Reduce unnecessary actions
Review your flow to eliminate redundant steps or actions that could be replaced with optimized expressions or simplified logic.
3) Avoid deep nesting
Power Automate has a maximum depth of 8 nested scopes or loops. Try to flatten out your logic or break it into separate flows if you find yourself nesting too deep.
4) Use variables and expressions wisely
Instead of chaining multiple compose actions, try using variables or inline expressions to reduce clutter and processing time.
5)Monitor and test frequently
Use the built-in flow checker and monitor the flow’s performance in the Run History. This helps identify slow steps, bottlenecks, or potential timeout issues.
6) Enable concurrency control (where needed)
For loops and parallel branches, consider enabling concurrency control settings to improve throughput—but make sure your data logic supports it.