API Rate Limiting is a technique used to control and regulate the number of API requests or transactions that clients or users can make within a specified time interval (e.g. per second, minute, hour) to prevent abuse, mitigate excessive traffic, ensure fair usage, and protect API servers from overload or denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. Rate limiting policies define thresholds, quotas, and rate limits for API usage based on factors such as client identities, API endpoints, authentication tokens, IP addresses, or subscription tiers, enforcing restrictions through API gateways, proxies, or API management platforms to maintain performance, reliability, and availability of API services.
