What is Rate limiting?
The short answer
Rate limiting caps how many requests one visitor or IP can make in a period, protecting logins, forms and APIs from abuse and brute-force attacks.
Rate limiting, explained
It also protects paid services behind an API from runaway costs.
Questions people ask about Rate limiting
What is Rate limiting?
Rate limiting caps how many requests one visitor or IP can make in a period, protecting logins, forms and APIs from abuse and brute-force attacks.
Related terms
A web application firewall filters incoming requests to a website and blocks known attack patterns before they reach the application.
APIAn API is a defined way for one piece of software to ask another for data or actions, such as a site asking a payment service to charge a card.
Website securityWebsite security is protecting a site, its data and its visitors from attacks, through HTTPS, updated software, careful input handling, strong logins and backups.
Cross-site scriptingCross-site scripting is an attack where malicious code is injected into a page and runs in other visitors' browsers, stealing sessions or data.
Part of the Web Encyclopedia by Apex Flow Digital. Definitions are general knowledge, kept current, with no invented statistics.