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World D5: Ship & Shield

Pull limits and licence rules

You will learn: why Docker Hub says 429, and who may use Docker Desktop for free.

Checked with Docker Engine 29 on 31 Oct 2026

The problem

Your laptop~

  • No open hatches

Lunchboxes (containers)

  • No containers yet

Frozen packs (images)

  • No images yet

Real error: 429 Too Many Requests. Plain words: Docker Hub counts your pulls, and you used them all up.

Watch

Docker Hub has a pull limit: How many images Docker Hub lets you pull every 6 hours. Logging in raises it.: so many pulls every 6 hours. Logged-out pulls share one count per internet address. Order these, fewest pulls first.

Fewest pulls at the top. Put these in order. Use the arrows, or drag.

  • Free account, logged in: 200
  • Paid plan: no limit
  • Logged out: 100 per address

Try it

Your token is in $DOCKER_TOKEN. Log in, then pull redis:8-alpine again.

Your laptop~

  • No open hatches

Lunchboxes (containers)

  • No containers yet

Frozen packs (images)

  • No images yet

Predict

Your office shares one internet address. 40 test robots each pull 3 images, logged out. What happens?

Watch

Docker Desktop is the app for Mac and Windows. Its licence is free for some and paid for others. Sort them.

Drag a card into a box. Or tap the card, then tap the box.

      Check

      The bank runs Docker Engine on its Linux servers. No Docker Desktop. Does it need that paid plan?

      You did it!

      You can now dodge pull limits and pick the right Docker licence.

      Go deeper (optional)

      Free tiers change, so check docs.docker.com before you plan. A pull counts when you fetch an image’s manifest. A HEAD request, which only peeks, does not count. In CI, log in, or keep copies in your own registry. Podman, and Docker Engine on Linux, are free choices too.

      Real rep (optional):

      Real mission

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