Promise APIs Compared: all vs race vs any vs allSettled

Promise APIs Comparison: all vs race vs any vs allSettled

JavaScript provides multiple Promise combinators.
They all start promises concurrently, but they differ in when they resolve/reject and what they return.

Understanding the differences prevents subtle bugs and improves performance.

🧠 Quick Overview#

🔹 Promise.all#

Behavior#

• Waits for all promises to resolve
• Rejects immediately if any promise rejects

await Promise.all([
  fetch("/a"),
  fetch("/b"),
  fetch("/c"),
]);

Timeline#

A ─────┐
B ─────┼──► resolve
C ─────┘

When to use#

✅ You need all results
❌ One failure should stop everything

Common mistake#

await Promise.all(tasks); // crashes if one fails

If partial success is acceptable → use allSettled.

🔹 Promise.race#

Behavior#

• Settles as soon as the first promise settles
• That settlement can be resolve or reject

await Promise.race([
  fetch("/data"),
  timeout(3000),
]);

Timeline#

timeout ──► reject (wins)
fetch    ───────────► ignored

When to use#

✅ Timeouts
✅ First response wins
❌ Not for “first success only”

🔹 Promise.any#

Behavior#

• Resolves on the first fulfilled promise
• Rejects only if all promises reject
• Rejection reason is an AggregateError

const result = await Promise.any([
  fetch("/cdn-1"),
  fetch("/cdn-2"),
  fetch("/cdn-3"),
]);

Timeline#

cdn-1 ✖
cdn-2 ✖
cdn-3 ✔ ──► resolve

When to use#

✅ Redundant endpoints
✅ Fallback strategies
❌ When failures matter

🔹 Promise.allSettled#

Behavior#

• Waits for all promises to settle
• Never rejects
• Returns status for each promise

const results = await Promise.allSettled([
  fetch("/a"),
  fetch("/b"),
  fetch("/c"),
]);

Result shape#

[
  { status: "fulfilled", value: ... },
  { status: "rejected", reason: ... },
]

Timeline#

A ✔
B ✖
C ✔ ──► resolve with report

When to use#

✅ Logging
✅ Batch operations
✅ Partial success allowed

🧠 Mental Model#

Think of them as rules for waiting:

• all → everyone must succeed
• race → whoever finishes first decides
• any → first success wins
• allSettled → everyone reports back

⚠️ Important Notes#

• All promises start immediately
• None of these APIs make JS parallel
• They only coordinate async results

This is still sequential:

await a();
await b();

This is concurrent:

await Promise.all([a(), b()]);

🧪 Real-World Use Cases#

❌ Common Pitfalls#

1. Using all when failures are acceptable#

→ causes unnecessary crashes

2. Using race for “first success”#

→ rejects too early

3. Forgetting AggregateError in any#

try {
  await Promise.any(promises);
} catch (e) {
  console.log(e.errors); // list of failures
}

✅ Summary Table#

✨ Final Takeaway#

Choose the Promise API based on failure behavior, not speed.
They all run concurrently — the difference is when you stop waiting.