Why API Rate Limiting is Critical for Security and Performance
API rate limiting represents one of the most essential yet frequently overlooked security controls in modern application architecture. It functions as a gatekeeper that controls the number of requests a client can make to your API within a specified time window, protecting your infrastructure from abuse while ensuring fair resource allocation among users. Without proper rate limiting, APIs become vulnerable to distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, brute-force credential stuffing, unauthorized data scraping, and resource exhaustion that can bring entire services offline. Beyond security, rate limiting plays a crucial role in cost management, particularly for cloud-based APIs where excessive traffic directly translates to increased infrastructure expenses.
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