Rate Limiting
The control of how many requests or operations a caller may perform during a defined period.
Plain English
Restrict request volume so a service remains fair safe and available.
In context
Rate limits protect capacity and abuse boundaries and should communicate scope window remaining allowance and retry behavior.
Example
“The API rate limit allows one hundred write requests per minute per account.”
When you'll hear this
- API design
- reliability
- abuse prevention
Common misunderstanding
Rate limiting manages volume but does not replace authentication authorization or total capacity planning.
Also known as
request throttlingrate limitthrottling
Commonly used by
Related terms
Updated: 2026-08-27
