API Management

Add rate limiting - Editor

API Gateway tutorialLocal with an editorStep 2 of 5

Limit requests from each IP address, then test that requests over the limit return a 429 response.

Before you start: Start with a working route from the gateway setup step. Set up a basic gateway

Follow along using

In this guide we'll add simple Rate Limiting to a route. If you don't have one ready, complete Step 1 first.

Rate Limiting is one of our most popular policies - you should never ship an API without rate limiting because your customers or internal developers will accidentally DoS your API; usually with a rogue useEffect call in React code.

What's a Policy?

Policies are modules that can intercept and transform an incoming request or outgoing response. Zuplo offers a wide range of policies built-in (including rate limiting) to save you time. You can check out the full list.

Zuplo offers a programmable approach to rate limiting that allows you to vary how rate limiting is applied for each customer or request.

In this example, we'll add a simple IP-based rate limiter, but you should also explore dynamic rate limiting to see the full power of the world's best rate limiter.

Add the rate-limiting Policy

Open the local Route Designer at http://localhost:9100. If your gateway isn't already running, start it from your project directory with npm run dev.

Select your route and click Add Policy on the incoming request policies section.

http://localhost:9100/?path=routes.oas.json

Search for the Rate Limiting policy (not the "Complex" one) and click it.

By default, the policy will rate limit based on the caller's IP address (as indicated by the rateLimitBy field). It will allow 2 requests (requestsAllowed) every 1 minute (timeWindowMinutes). You can explore the rest of the policy's documentation and configuration in the right panel.

To apply the policy, click Create Policy, then save your changes.

Testing your Policy

Now try firing some requests against your API. You should receive a 429 Too many requests on your 3rd request. You can use any API test tool you prefer, such as Postman, HTTPie, or curl.

Code
curl http://localhost:9000/todos

After you make the request 3 times you will see a response similar to:

Code
{
  "type": "https://httpproblems.com/http-status/429",
  "title": "Too Many Requests",
  "status": 429,
  "instance": "/todos",
  "trace": {
    "timestamp": "2025-08-26T21:50:40.220Z",
    "requestId": "4c62d425-2cb0-4a6c-9ac0-8d04a5f10c57",
    "buildId": "f49c4070-7c0a-441b-a5fd-4e35b5fe41b7"
  }
}

Your rate limiting policy is now intercepting excess requests, protecting your API.