Rate Limit Simulator
Learn rate limiting, backoff strategies, and API throttling through interactive simulation
Configuration
Configure rate limits and simulation parameters
20/20
Remaining
0
Successful
0
Throttled
0
Total
0.0%
Success Rate
0.0%
Throttle Rate
Request Timeline (5-second intervals)
Aggregated view of requests over time - each bar represents a 5-second period
Rate Limit Remaining
Exponential Backoff: Double the delay each time - Delays grow: 1s → 2s → 4s → 8s → 16s → 30s (max)
Understanding Rate Limiting
What You'll Learn
- How rate limiting protects APIs from abuse
- Different backoff strategies and when to use them
- Reading and understanding rate limit headers
- Handling HTTP 429 responses gracefully
- Optimizing request patterns for better throughput
- Real-world API rate limiting examples
Backoff Strategies
Fixed Delay: Simple but can cause thundering herd
Linear Backoff: Predictable increase in delay
Exponential Backoff: Rapidly reduces load on servers
Jittered Exponential: Prevents synchronized retries
💡 Pro Tips
- • Always implement exponential backoff with jitter for production systems
- • Monitor rate limit headers to anticipate throttling before it happens
- • Use circuit breakers to prevent cascading failures
- • Consider different rate limits for different user tiers (free vs paid)