How do I increase and manage API Gateway throttling quotas?

Short description

API Gateway has account-level quotas for each AWS Region. The throttling quota is 10,000 requests per second (RPS), with an additional burst capacity provided by the token bucket algorithm. The maximum bucket capacity is 5,000 requests within an AWS account, per Region.

For more information, see Throttle requests to your REST APIs for better throughput in API Gateway.

Resolution

To manage your API Gateway throttling quotas, you can request an account-level throttling quota increase request. You can also turn on caching, configure a usage plan and API keys, and use a retry mode.

Note: If you exceed the throttling quota, then you get a "429 Too Many Requests" or "Limited Exceeded" error response. To resolve this issue, see How do I troubleshoot "Exceeded throttle limit" or "Exceeded quota limit" errors for my API Gateway REST API?

Submit an account-level throttling quota increase request

Complete the following steps:

1. Open the Service Quotas console.
2. In the navigation pane, choose AWS services.
3. In the AWS services search bar, enter Amazon API Gateway.
4. In the Service quotas search bar, enter Throttle rate.
5. Choose Request increase at account level.
6. For Increase quota value, enter a value greater than 10,000.
7. Choose Request.
   Note: In the Recent quota increase request section, the status shows Pending.
8. Wait a few minutes, and then refresh the page.

If the quota increase request doesn't exceed the maximum quota, then the status changes to Approved. To view your new quota, check the Applied account-level quota value field. If the quota increase request exceeds the maximum quota, then the status changes to Case opened. You can view the case in the AWS Support Center.

Note: The throttle burst rate quota isn't adjustable and you can't request a quota increase. For more information, see Amazon API Gateway quotas.

Turn on API Gateway caching

You can turn on API caching to reduce the number of API calls made to your endpoint to prevent throttling. For more information, see How do I select the best Amazon API Gateway Cache capacity to avoid hitting a rate limit?

Configure a REST API usage plan and API keys

You can configure a usage plan and API keys to throttle API requests based on your defined throttling limit and quota limit. Usage plans use API keys that you set up for REST APIs to control who can access API stages.

To configure a REST API usage plan, first set up the API keys for REST APIs in API Gateway. Then, set up the usage plan for REST APIs in API Gateway.

To get the usage associated with an API key, see How can I identify the usage associated with an API key for API Gateway?

For more information, see Usage plans and API keys for REST APIs in API Gateway.

Use a standard retry mode

If you exceed your throttling quota, then you can use a standard retry mode with jittered exponential backoff, and then resubmit your API request. Exponential backoff allows longer wait times when API Gateway throttles API calls. For more information, see Retry behavior and Exponential backoff and jitter.