diff --git a/github/config.go b/github/config.go
index e6c91af734..4eb2c76ef6 100644
--- a/github/config.go
+++ b/github/config.go
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ type Config struct {
 	BaseURL    string
 	Insecure   bool
 	WriteDelay time.Duration
+	ReadDelay  time.Duration
 }
 
 type Owner struct {
@@ -31,10 +32,10 @@ type Owner struct {
 	IsOrganization bool
 }
 
-func RateLimitedHTTPClient(client *http.Client, writeDelay time.Duration) *http.Client {
+func RateLimitedHTTPClient(client *http.Client, writeDelay time.Duration, readDelay time.Duration) *http.Client {
 
 	client.Transport = NewEtagTransport(client.Transport)
-	client.Transport = NewRateLimitTransport(client.Transport, WithWriteDelay(writeDelay))
+	client.Transport = NewRateLimitTransport(client.Transport, WithWriteDelay(writeDelay), WithReadDelay(readDelay))
 	client.Transport = logging.NewTransport("Github", client.Transport)
 
 	return client
@@ -48,7 +49,7 @@ func (c *Config) AuthenticatedHTTPClient() *http.Client {
 	)
 	client := oauth2.NewClient(ctx, ts)
 
-	return RateLimitedHTTPClient(client, c.WriteDelay)
+	return RateLimitedHTTPClient(client, c.WriteDelay, c.ReadDelay)
 }
 
 func (c *Config) Anonymous() bool {
@@ -57,7 +58,7 @@ func (c *Config) Anonymous() bool {
 
 func (c *Config) AnonymousHTTPClient() *http.Client {
 	client := &http.Client{Transport: &http.Transport{}}
-	return RateLimitedHTTPClient(client, c.WriteDelay)
+	return RateLimitedHTTPClient(client, c.WriteDelay, c.ReadDelay)
 }
 
 func (c *Config) NewGraphQLClient(client *http.Client) (*githubv4.Client, error) {
diff --git a/github/provider.go b/github/provider.go
index d055100219..104125fae1 100644
--- a/github/provider.go
+++ b/github/provider.go
@@ -50,6 +50,12 @@ func Provider() terraform.ResourceProvider {
 				Default:     1000,
 				Description: descriptions["write_delay_ms"],
 			},
+			"read_delay_ms": {
+				Type:        schema.TypeInt,
+				Optional:    true,
+				Default:     0,
+				Description: descriptions["read_delay_ms"],
+			},
 			"app_auth": {
 				Type:        schema.TypeList,
 				Optional:    true,
@@ -174,6 +180,8 @@ func init() {
 		"app_auth.pem_file":        "The GitHub App PEM file contents.",
 		"write_delay_ms": "Amount of time in milliseconds to sleep in between writes to GitHub API. " +
 			"Defaults to 1000ms or 1s if not set.",
+		"read_delay_ms": "Amount of time in milliseconds to sleep in between non-write requests to GitHub API. " +
+			"Defaults to 0ms if not set.",
 	}
 }
 
@@ -250,12 +258,19 @@ func providerConfigure(p *schema.Provider) schema.ConfigureFunc {
 		}
 		log.Printf("[INFO] Setting write_delay_ms to %d", writeDelay)
 
+		readDelay := d.Get("read_delay_ms").(int)
+		if readDelay < 0 {
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("read_delay_ms must be greater than or equal to 0ms")
+		}
+		log.Printf("[DEBUG] Setting read_delay_ms to %d", readDelay)
+
 		config := Config{
 			Token:      token,
 			BaseURL:    baseURL,
 			Insecure:   insecure,
 			Owner:      owner,
 			WriteDelay: time.Duration(writeDelay) * time.Millisecond,
+			ReadDelay:  time.Duration(readDelay) * time.Millisecond,
 		}
 
 		meta, err := config.Meta()
diff --git a/github/transport.go b/github/transport.go
index a0f77adc58..b0c5f8788e 100644
--- a/github/transport.go
+++ b/github/transport.go
@@ -49,8 +49,9 @@ func NewEtagTransport(rt http.RoundTripper) *etagTransport {
 // https://developer.github.com/v3/guides/best-practices-for-integrators/#dealing-with-abuse-rate-limits
 type RateLimitTransport struct {
 	transport        http.RoundTripper
-	delayNextRequest bool
+	nextRequestDelay time.Duration
 	writeDelay       time.Duration
+	readDelay        time.Duration
 
 	m sync.Mutex
 }
@@ -61,14 +62,14 @@ func (rlt *RateLimitTransport) RoundTrip(req *http.Request) (*http.Response, err
 	// and restoring bodies between retries below
 	rlt.lock(req)
 
-	// If you're making a large number of POST, PATCH, PUT, or DELETE requests
-	// for a single user or client ID, wait at least one second between each request.
-	if rlt.delayNextRequest {
-		log.Printf("[DEBUG] Sleeping %s between write operations", rlt.writeDelay)
-		time.Sleep(rlt.writeDelay)
+	// Sleep for the delay that the last request defined. This delay might be different
+	// for read and write requests. See isWriteMethod for the distinction between them.
+	if rlt.nextRequestDelay > 0 {
+		log.Printf("[DEBUG] Sleeping %s between operations", rlt.nextRequestDelay)
+		time.Sleep(rlt.nextRequestDelay)
 	}
 
-	rlt.delayNextRequest = isWriteMethod(req.Method)
+	rlt.nextRequestDelay = rlt.calculateNextDelay(req.Method)
 
 	resp, err := rlt.transport.RoundTrip(req)
 	if err != nil {
@@ -89,7 +90,7 @@ func (rlt *RateLimitTransport) RoundTrip(req *http.Request) (*http.Response, err
 
 	// When you have been limited, use the Retry-After response header to slow down.
 	if arlErr, ok := ghErr.(*github.AbuseRateLimitError); ok {
-		rlt.delayNextRequest = false
+		rlt.nextRequestDelay = 0
 		retryAfter := arlErr.GetRetryAfter()
 		log.Printf("[DEBUG] Abuse detection mechanism triggered, sleeping for %s before retrying",
 			retryAfter)
@@ -99,7 +100,7 @@ func (rlt *RateLimitTransport) RoundTrip(req *http.Request) (*http.Response, err
 	}
 
 	if rlErr, ok := ghErr.(*github.RateLimitError); ok {
-		rlt.delayNextRequest = false
+		rlt.nextRequestDelay = 0
 		retryAfter := time.Until(rlErr.Rate.Reset.Time)
 		log.Printf("[DEBUG] Rate limit %d reached, sleeping for %s (until %s) before retrying",
 			rlErr.Rate.Limit, retryAfter, time.Now().Add(retryAfter))
@@ -121,6 +122,15 @@ func (rlt *RateLimitTransport) unlock(req *http.Request) {
 	rlt.m.Unlock()
 }
 
+// calculateNextDelay returns a time.Duration specifying the backoff before the next request
+// the actual value depends on the current method being a write or a read request
+func (rlt *RateLimitTransport) calculateNextDelay(method string) time.Duration {
+	if isWriteMethod(method) {
+		return rlt.writeDelay
+	}
+	return rlt.readDelay
+}
+
 type RateLimitTransportOption func(*RateLimitTransport)
 
 // NewRateLimitTransport takes in an http.RoundTripper and a variadic list of
@@ -128,7 +138,8 @@ type RateLimitTransportOption func(*RateLimitTransport)
 // may be used to alter the write delay in between requests, for example.
 func NewRateLimitTransport(rt http.RoundTripper, options ...RateLimitTransportOption) *RateLimitTransport {
 	// Default to 1 second of write delay if none is provided
-	rlt := &RateLimitTransport{transport: rt, writeDelay: 1 * time.Second}
+	// Default to no read delay if none is provided
+	rlt := &RateLimitTransport{transport: rt, writeDelay: 1 * time.Second, readDelay: 0 * time.Second}
 
 	for _, opt := range options {
 		opt(rlt)
@@ -144,6 +155,13 @@ func WithWriteDelay(d time.Duration) RateLimitTransportOption {
 	}
 }
 
+// WithReadDelay is used to set the delay between read requests
+func WithReadDelay(d time.Duration) RateLimitTransportOption {
+	return func(rlt *RateLimitTransport) {
+		rlt.readDelay = d
+	}
+}
+
 // drainBody reads all of b to memory and then returns two equivalent
 // ReadClosers yielding the same bytes.
 func drainBody(b io.ReadCloser) (r1, r2 io.ReadCloser, err error) {
diff --git a/website/docs/index.html.markdown b/website/docs/index.html.markdown
index bd6d363c24..417eaa5352 100644
--- a/website/docs/index.html.markdown
+++ b/website/docs/index.html.markdown
@@ -109,6 +109,8 @@ The following arguments are supported in the `provider` block:
 
 * `write_delay_ms` - (Optional) The number of milliseconds to sleep in between write operations in order to satisfy the GitHub API rate limits. Defaults to 1000ms or 1 second if not provided.
 
+* `read_delay_ms` - (Optional) The number of milliseconds to sleep in between non-write operations in order to satisfy the GitHub API rate limits. Defaults to 0ms.
+
 Note: If you have a PEM file on disk, you can pass it in via `pem_file = file("path/to/file.pem")`.
 
 For backwards compatibility, if more than one of `owner`, `organization`,