Docker-compose : You have reached your pull rate limit (even though it has been more than 6 hours)

Question

I'm using docker-compose and I have a step that pulls the latest postgres. But I started getting the following error:

You have reached your pull rate limit. You may increase the limit by authenticating and upgrading: https://www.docker.com/increase-rate-limits.

It been a day since I last pulled something but I still get this error. How much more time should I wait before I can pull again? I'm behind workplace proxy doing anonymous pulls.

Answer 1

The pull limit is a rolling limit that should reset parts of the quota 6 hours after that part of the quota was used. E.g. of you do 25 pulls every hour, then after the 4th hour, you need to wait 2 hours for the first 25 pulls to be added back to your quota.

Anonymous pulls are based on the IP performing the pull, and if you are behind a proxy or NAT, that may mean others on the same network are included in your limit. So if you see the limit continue to be reached after 6 hours, there are most likely others on the network pulling from hub with your same source IP from the NAT.

Logging in with a free Hub account in doubles this limit and is based on login rather than source IP, allowing different users behind a NAT to pull without conflicting with each other.

Therefore you should include credentials with your pull commands, using docker login or the equivalent for the tool you use to pull.