---
title: Gateway rate limiting
description: This page is an introduction to rate limiting with Kong Gateway.
url: "/gateway/rate-limiting/"
canonical_url: "/gateway/rate-limiting/"
content_type: landing_page
products:
- Kong Gateway
tags:
- rate-limiting
canonical: true
works_on:
- on-prem
- konnect


---






# Rate limiting with Kong Gateway


## Capabilities



Kong Gateway allows you to limit how many HTTP requests can be made in a given period.

Rate limits can be applied to a [Gateway Service](/gateway/entities/service/) or individual [Routes](/gateway/entities/route/) to protect the upstream API, or to a [Consumer](/gateway/entities/consumer/) to restrict how many times a user can call the API in the specified period.

Kong offers two standard HTTP rate limiting plugins: [Rate Limiting](/plugins/rate-limiting/) or [Rate Limiting Advanced](/plugins/rate-limiting-advanced/) plugins in addition to a series [specialized](#specialized-rate-limiting-plugins) AI, Gateway Service, GraphQL, and dynamic rate limiting plugins.



<pre class='mermaid'> 
flowchart TD
A{What are you trying 
to rate limit?}  
A -->|Only Services| B[Service Protection 
plugin]
A -->|LLMs| G[AI Rate Limiting 
Advanced plugin]
A -->|GraphQL queries| I[GraphQL Rate Limiting 
Advanced plugin]
A -->|Routes, Consumers, 
or global| C{Do you want to 
apply multiple limits 
or sliding windows?}
A -->|"Consumers 
(developer requests)"| D[Response Rate 
Limiting plugin]
C --> |Yes| H[Rate Limiting 
Advanced plugin]
C --> |No| F[Rate Limiting
plugin]
click B "/plugins/service-protection/"
click D "/plugins/response-ratelimiting/"
click F "/plugins/rate-limiting/"
click G "/plugins/ai-rate-limiting-advanced/"
click I "/plugins/graphql-rate-limiting-advanced/"
click H "/plugins/rate-limiting-advanced/"

  </pre>


## Comparing Rate Limiting with Rate Limiting Advanced


### Rate limit based on `consumer`, `consumer-group`, `credential`, `ip` and `service`
Rate Limiting: Supported
Rate Limiting Advanced: Supported

### Basic Redis support
Rate Limiting: Supported
Rate Limiting Advanced: Supported

### Redis Sentinel, Cluster + SSL support
Rate Limiting: Not Supported
Rate Limiting Advanced: Supported

### Fixed window rate limits
Rate Limiting: Supported
Rate Limiting Advanced: Supported

### Advanced rate limiting algorithms
subtitle: For example: leaky bucket, sliding window.Rate Limiting: Not Supported
Rate Limiting Advanced: Supported

### Enhanced window size configuration
subtitle: Configure custom intervals beyond standard options like `second` or `minute`.Rate Limiting: Not Supported
Rate Limiting Advanced: Supported

### Precise counter control
subtitle: Specify whether blocked requests count towards the rate limit calculation.Rate Limiting: Not Supported
Rate Limiting Advanced: Supported

### Throttle rate limits v3.12+
subtitle: Allows requests that exceed the rate limit threshold to be delayed and retried, rather than immediately rejected.Rate Limiting: Not Supported
Rate Limiting Advanced: Supported




## Rate Limiting

You can use the Rate Limiting plugin to limit how many HTTP requests can be made in a given period of seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, or years.

[See plugin](/plugins/rate-limiting/)

## Rate Limiting Advanced

Enhanced rate limiting capabilities such as sliding window support, Redis Sentinel support, and increased performance

[See plugin](/plugins/rate-limiting-advanced/)


## How-to guides


* [Rate limit a Consumer with Kong Gateway](/how-to/add-rate-limiting-for-a-consumer-with-kong-gateway/)

* [Create rate limiting tiers with Kong Gateway](/how-to/add-rate-limiting-tiers-with-kong-gateway/)

* [Rate limit a Gateway Service with Kong Gateway](/how-to/add-rate-limiting-to-a-service-with-kong-gateway/)

* [Adjust header names in a request](/how-to/adjust-header-names-in-request/)

* [Apply multiple rate limits and window sizes](/how-to/multiple-rate-limits-window-sizes/)

* [Rate limit requests based on peak and off-peak time](/how-to/rate-limit-based-on-peak-time/)



## Specialized rate limiting plugins

### AI Rate Limiting Advanced

Provides rate limiting for the AI plugins.

[See plugin](/plugins/ai-rate-limiting-advanced/)

### GraphQL Rate Limiting Advanced

Provides rate limiting for GraphQL queries

[See plugin](/plugins/graphql-rate-limiting-advanced/)

### Response Rate Limiting

Rate limit based on a custom response header value.

[See plugin](/plugins/response-ratelimiting/)

### Service Protection

Prevent abuse and protect services with absolute limits on the number of requests reaching the service

[See plugin](/plugins/service-protection/)