AWS API Gateway Throughput Calculator
Check peak API Gateway traffic against the account RPS quota and burst allowance, and see requests in flight and spare headroom.
Inputs
Default is 10,000 req/s per region across all APIs.
Default token-bucket burst is 5,000 requests.
Leave at 0 if no stage-level throttle is configured.
Quota Utilization at Peak
30.0%
Requests in Flight at Peak
360
Spare Capacity
7,000req/s
Burst Absorbed Before Throttling
0.0s
Requests per Month at This Rate
7,776,000,000
Throttling Assessment
Comfortably within the quota
Step by step
Values used
Peak request rate = 3,000 req/s; Average end-to-end latency = 120 ms; Account steady-state quota = 10,000 req/s; Burst allowance = 5,000 requests; Stage or method throttle = 0 req/s; Integration timeout = 29 s
AWS API Gateway Throughput
quota utilization = peak req/s ÷ effective limit; requests in flight = peak req/s × average latency in seconds; burst absorbed = burst allowance ÷ (peak − limit).
Quota Utilization at Peak
= 30.0
Requests in Flight at Peak
= 360
Spare Capacity
= 7,000 req/s
Burst Absorbed Before Throttling
= 0.0 s
Requests per Month at This Rate
= 7,776,000,000
Throttling Assessment
= Comfortably within the quota
How it works
API Gateway throttles with a token bucket: the steady quota refills the bucket every second and the burst allowance is its depth, so traffic above the quota is only served until the bucket drains. Requests in flight follow Little's law and matter because slow integrations hold connections open, and the hard 29-second integration timeout caps how slow a backend may be. Quotas differ by region and can be raised, so check your Service Quotas console rather than assuming the defaults. The RPS quota is per region and shared by every API in the account, so one noisy API can throttle an unrelated production endpoint — knowing your utilization is what lets you ask for the increase before the incident rather than during it.
Formula
AWS API Gateway Throughput
quota utilization = peak req/s ÷ effective limit; requests in flight = peak req/s × average latency in seconds; burst absorbed = burst allowance ÷ (peak − limit).
- effective limit
- Stage throttle if configured, otherwise the account steady-state quota
- requests in flight
- Concurrent requests the gateway is holding open, by Little's law
- burst allowance
- Token-bucket depth that absorbs a spike above the steady rate
Frequently Asked Questions
How is AWS API Gateway Throughput calculated?
quota utilization = peak req/s ÷ effective limit; requests in flight = peak req/s × average latency in seconds; burst absorbed = burst allowance ÷ (peak − limit). API Gateway throttles with a token bucket: the steady quota refills the bucket every second and the burst allowance is its depth, so traffic above the quota is only served until the bucket drains. Requests in flight follow Little's law and matter because slow integrations hold connections open, and the hard 29-second integration timeout caps how slow a backend may be. Quotas differ by region and can be raised, so check your Service Quotas console rather than assuming the defaults.
Why does AWS API Gateway Throughput matter?
The RPS quota is per region and shared by every API in the account, so one noisy API can throttle an unrelated production endpoint — knowing your utilization is what lets you ask for the increase before the incident rather than during it.
What values do I need to enter?
This calculator takes 6 inputs: Peak request rate, Average end-to-end latency, Account steady-state quota, Burst allowance, Stage or method throttle, Integration timeout. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.
What does a client see when the quota is exceeded?
A 429 Too Many Requests with a Retry-After hint on REST APIs. It is returned by the gateway before your integration runs, so the request never reaches Lambda and never appears in your function's error metrics — you have to watch the gateway's 4XXError and Count metrics to see it.