Glossary term
What is Rate limit? Meaning for developers
In System Design
A cap on how many requests a client can make in a time window. Example: "100 requests per minute on the Free plan".
Learn it properly · System DesignLesson 43: Rate Limiting Algorithms ExplainedOne buggy script calling 5,000 times a second can hurt every customer. How rate limiting protects your system and keeps usage fair: the five classic algorithms — with a simulator you can drive — distributed limiting in Redis, and how to tell clients to slow down.In API Design
A cap on how many requests a client may send in a time window, answered with 429 when exceeded.
Learn it properly · API DesignLesson 5: Idempotency Keys, Retries, Webhooks and Rate LimitsSafe retries with idempotency keys, webhooks with signatures and retries, rate limit headers, and long-running jobs.