> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/taskforcesh/bullmq/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Throttle Jobs

> Prevent duplicate jobs from being added by using job IDs

Sometimes, you may want to enqueue a job in reaction to a frequently occurring event, without running that job for every event. For example, you may want to send an email to a user when they update their profile, but you don't want to send an email for every single update if they make many changes in rapid succession.

## Using Job IDs for Throttling

You can achieve this by setting an identical `jobId` so that **identical jobs are considered duplicates and not added to the queue**.

When you use this option, it is up to you to ensure the `jobId` is unique for different types of work:

```typescript theme={null}
import { Job, Queue, Worker } from 'bullmq';

const myQueue = new Queue('Paint');

const worker = new Worker('Paint', async (job: Job) => {
  console.log('Do something with job');
  return 'some value';
});

worker.on('completed', (job: Job, returnvalue: any) => {
  console.log('worker done painting', new Date());
});

worker.on('failed', (job: Job, error: Error) => {
  console.error('worker fail painting', job, error, new Date());
});

// Add only one job that will be delayed at least 1 second.
myQueue.add('house', { color: 'white' }, { delay: 1000, jobId: 'house' });
myQueue.add('house', { color: 'white' }, { delay: 1000, jobId: 'house' });
myQueue.add('house', { color: 'white' }, { delay: 1000, jobId: 'house' });
myQueue.add('house', { color: 'white' }, { delay: 1000, jobId: 'house' });
myQueue.add('house', { color: 'white' }, { delay: 1000, jobId: 'house' });
myQueue.add('house', { color: 'white' }, { delay: 1000, jobId: 'house' });
myQueue.add('house', { color: 'white' }, { delay: 1000, jobId: 'house' });
```

In this example, only the first job will be added to the queue. All subsequent attempts to add a job with the same `jobId` will be ignored while a job with that ID exists in the queue.

<Warning>
  Be careful if using `removeOnComplete`/`removeOnFailed` options, since a removed job will not count as existing and a new job with the same job ID could be added to the queue without being detected as a duplicate.
</Warning>

## Use Cases

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Profile Updates" icon="user">
    Send a single notification email after profile updates, not for each field change
  </Card>

  <Card title="Search Indexing" icon="magnifying-glass">
    Index a document once after multiple rapid edits
  </Card>

  <Card title="Cache Invalidation" icon="trash">
    Clear cache once for multiple related changes
  </Card>

  <Card title="Webhook Delivery" icon="webhook">
    Send a single webhook for batched events
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Alternative: Deduplication

For more sophisticated throttling and deduplication patterns, see the [Deduplication guide](/jobs/deduplication) which provides built-in throttle and debounce modes.

## Related Resources

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Job IDs" icon="fingerprint" href="/jobs/job-ids">
    Learn more about custom job identifiers
  </Card>

  <Card title="Deduplication" icon="clone" href="/jobs/deduplication">
    Advanced deduplication strategies
  </Card>
</CardGroup>