Hey there, fellow!
You know the drill – you start building a flow for a “simple” business process. A couple of loops here, a few conditions there, and before you know it… BAM! Power Automate hits you with:
“The power flow’s logic app flow template was invalid. The template actions ‘Compose’ are nested at level ‘9’ which exceeds the maximum nesting limit of ‘8’.”
or
“You can’t add more actions to this flow”.
Frustrating? Absolutely.
Survivable? Definitely – if you know the trick.
The Two Big Limits You’ll Meet
- Nesting limit: You can only go 8 levels deep with loops, conditions, and scopes.
→ That’s not just 8 “actions” – it’s 8 layers of logic. (Screenshot idea: “You’ve exceeded the nesting limit” error pop-up.) - Action count limit: You can only have 500 actions in a single flow.
→ Yes, even actions hidden inside branches count against you.
And trust me — these numbers sound generous until you build a real-world automation.
The Case Story
In my last project, I was processing a large dataset with multiple passes:
- Loops to iterate over each record
- Nested conditions for different rules
- Extra logic to compare and validate
Within days, my flow became a monster.
And then… I hit both limits. I couldn’t add more logic without breaking the whole thing.
The Lifesaver: Child Flows
A child flow is just another Power Automate flow that you call from a “parent” flow using the Run a Child Flow action.
Here’s what I did:
- Broke the logic into smaller single-responsibility chunks.
- Moved heavy or repetitive logic into child flows.
- Let the parent handle orchestration – when and what to run.
Result?
✅ Nesting level dropped.
✅ Action count reset (each child has its own 500 limit).
✅ Flows became smaller, easier to debug, and reusable.
Pro Tips for Beginners
- Stay standard: E3/E5 licenses are fine as long as you use only standard connectors in both flows.
- Define clear inputs/outputs: Treat child flows like small APIs – pass in exactly what they need.
- Watch payload sizes: Max 100 MB per run; chunk your data if needed.
- Name flows clearly: “DataValidation_Child” beats “Flow1” any day.
Wrap-Up
Power Automate limits are real – but they’re not the end of your automation dreams.
If you know how to split your logic and call child flows, you can scale your solutions without hitting the ceiling.
💬 Have you ever been stopped by these limits? Drop your story in the comments — maybe it’ll make it into the next part of this series.