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Reverse Proxy Throughput Calculator

Estimate reverse-proxy throughput, worker CPU utilisation and maximum request rate, with the TLS termination penalty included.

About Reverse Proxy Throughput Calculator

A reverse proxy costs a roughly fixed amount of CPU per request plus per-byte copying, so dividing the available worker seconds by the per-request cost gives the request ceiling. TLS termination adds around a third to that cost even with hardware AES. Keepalive ratio is the hidden variable: dropping from 90% to 50% reuse triples the new-connection rate and pushes the handshake path, not the proxy CPU, into being the bottleneck.

Formula

Reverse Proxy Throughput

throughput = requests/s × response size × 8 ÷ 1000 Mbps; worker utilisation = requests/s × CPU per request ÷ workers; max rps = workers ÷ CPU per request.

effectiveCpuUs
CPU per request, multiplied by 1.35 when the proxy terminates TLS
newConnectionsPerSec
Requests that must open a fresh TCP and TLS session

Worked example

With the default values below, Reverse Proxy Throughput Calculator returns Throughput of 6,720.0. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Requests per secondaccepts 1–10,000,000 rps
20,000 rps
Average response sizeaccepts 0.1–100,000 KB
42 KB
Worker processes or coresaccepts 1–512 workers
8 workers
CPU time per requestaccepts 1–100,000 µs
55 µs
Terminating TLS at the proxy
Yes
Requests reusing an existing connectionaccepts 0–100 %
90 %

Results

Throughput
6,720.0 Mbps
Maximum Sustainable Request Rate
107,744 rps
Worker CPU Utilisation
18.6%
Effective CPU per Request
74.3 µs
New Connections per Second
2,000 cps

Step by step

  1. 1Values used
  2. 2Reverse Proxy Throughput
  3. 3Throughput= 6,720.0 Mbps
  4. 4Maximum Sustainable Request Rate= 107,744 rps
  5. 5Worker CPU Utilisation= 18.6
  6. 6Effective CPU per Request= 74.3 µs
  7. 7New Connections per Second= 2,000 cps

Assumptions and limits

  • The result is derived only from the 6 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
  • In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
  • Figures are rounded for display to 1 decimal place, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is Reverse Proxy Throughput calculated?

throughput = requests/s × response size × 8 ÷ 1000 Mbps; worker utilisation = requests/s × CPU per request ÷ workers; max rps = workers ÷ CPU per request. A reverse proxy costs a roughly fixed amount of CPU per request plus per-byte copying, so dividing the available worker seconds by the per-request cost gives the request ceiling. TLS termination adds around a third to that cost even with hardware AES.

Why does Reverse Proxy Throughput matter?

Keepalive ratio is the hidden variable: dropping from 90% to 50% reuse triples the new-connection rate and pushes the handshake path, not the proxy CPU, into being the bottleneck.

What values do I need to enter?

This calculator takes 6 inputs: Requests per second, Average response size, Worker processes or cores, CPU time per request, Terminating TLS at the proxy, Requests reusing an existing connection. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.

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