Usage Plans & Throttling in AWS API Gateway

Introduction

The AWS API Gateway is a powerful service that allows developers to create, publish, and manage APIs at scale. One of the crucial aspects of managing APIs is defining usage plans and throttling strategies to control how clients access the API.

Key Concepts

• Usage Plans: A set of API keys and associated throttling limits and quotas.
• Throttling: The process of limiting the number of requests a client can make to prevent abuse and ensure fair usage.
• API Keys: Unique identifiers that clients use to authenticate requests to the API.

Usage Plans

Usage plans enable you to configure throttling and quota limits on a per-API key basis. You can create multiple usage plans to segment different clients or environments.

Steps to Create a Usage Plan

1. Open the AWS Management Console.
2. Navigate to API Gateway.
3. Select Usage Plans from the sidebar.
4. Click on Create Usage Plan.
5. Define the plan settings including throttling limits and quota.
6. Associate the usage plan with API stages.
7. Generate an API key and associate it with the usage plan.

Throttling

Throttling allows you to control the rate of incoming requests to your API. This ensures that your backend services are not overwhelmed by too many requests at once.

Throttling Settings

• Rate Limit: The number of requests per second.
• Burst Limit: The maximum number of requests allowed in a short time frame.

Example of Throttling Configuration

const apiGateway = require('aws-sdk').APIGateway;

const params = {
    usagePlanId: 'YOUR_USAGE_PLAN_ID',
    patchOperations: [
        {
            op: 'replace',
            path: '/throttle/rateLimit',
            value: '100' // Requests per second
        },
        {
            op: 'replace',
            path: '/throttle/burstLimit',
            value: '200' // Maximum burst requests
        }
    ]
};

apiGateway.updateUsagePlan(params, (err, data) => {
    if (err) console.log(err, err.stack);
    else console.log(data);
});

Best Practices

• Define clear usage plans for different client types.
• Monitor API usage regularly to adjust limits accordingly.
• Use API keys to authenticate and track usage per client.
• Implement error handling for throttled responses.

FAQ