Understand Ory Network rate limiting

This page provides a high level overview of the rate limiting mechanisms employed by Ory to ensure system security and availability. Rate limiting is important to protect your applications against abuse and attacks, prevent service disruptions, and ensure fair usage for all our customers.

Types of rate limits

Ory implements two main rate limits:

1. Project rate limits in Workspaces: These limits are determined by your Ory subscription plan and project environment. They define the maximum number of requests your projects can make to Ory's APIs within a given timeframe. This ensures fair resource allocation across all Ory projects.
   1. These limits are applied at the project level, meaning all requests from a specific project contribute to the rate limit counter for that project.
   2. Project rate limits are defined in terms of:
      • Burst limit: This governs the maximum number of requests allowed per second for temporary spikes in traffic.
      • Sustained limit: This sets the maximum request count over one minute, ensuring consistent and fair usage.
2. Endpoint based rate limits: These limits focus on safeguarding specific endpoints of your Ory projects against common attack vectors like brute-force and credential stuffing attempts. They typically consider factors like source IP address and request frequency to identify and mitigate malicious activity.
   1. Endpoint-based rate limits act as a first line of defense for your project endpoints. These limits often use the source IP address as a key criterion, allowing Ory to identify and block requests from suspicious or malicious sources.
   2. By analyzing request patterns and incorporating factors like source IP, Ory can effectively differentiate between legitimate user traffic and potentially harmful bot activity.

Project rate limits in workspaces

With the introduction of Workspaces in Ory Network, rate limits are now applied to projects based on their assigned environment and the Workspace's subscription plan. This approach ensures fair resource allocation and maintains the stability of the Ory Network across different usage scenarios.

How project rate limits work in workspaces

Rate limits for each project are determined by two main factors:

1. Workspace subscription: Your subscription plan (Developer, Production, Growth, or Enterprise) sets the baseline for your rate limits.
2. Project environment: Within each Workspace, projects can be assigned to Production, Staging, or Development environments, each with specific rate limit configurations.

For a detailed explanation of Workspaces and Environments, please refer to our Workspaces and Environments guide.

Rate limit structure

Each rate limit policy includes two limits:

1. Burst limit: Maximum requests per second (rps), allowing for short traffic spikes.
2. Sustained limit: Maximum requests per minute (rpm), ensuring consistent performance over time.

Determine your project's rate limits

To identify the rate limits that apply to your project:

1. Check your Workspace subscription plan (Developer, Production, Growth, or Enterprise).
2. Identify the environment (Production, Staging, or Development) assigned to your project.
3. Refer to the tables below based on your subscription plan and project environment.

Rate limit tables by subscription plan

Developer plan rate limits

Environment	Path / Bucket	Burst (rps)	Sustained (rpm)
Developer	/sessions/whoami	10	300
	/admin/oauth2/introspect	10	300
	/relation-tuples/check	10	300
	GET /admin/identities	1	10
	*	5	150

note

For Developer plans, all environments (Production, Staging, Development) use the same rate limits.

Production plan rate limits

Environment	Path / Bucket	Burst (rps)	Sustained (rpm)
Production	/sessions/whoami	80	1800
	/admin/oauth2/introspect	80	1800
	/relation-tuples/check	80	1800
	GET /admin/identities	10	300
	*	40	900
Staging & Development	/sessions/whoami	10	30
	/admin/oauth2/introspect	10	300
	/relation-tuples/check	10	300
	GET /admin/identities	1	10
	*	5	150

note

Production plan rate limits also apply to the Legacy Essential plan.

Growth plan rate limits

Environment	Path / Bucket	Burst (rps)	Sustained (rpm)
Production	/sessions/whoami	800	18000
	/admin/oauth2/introspect	800	18000
	/relation-tuples/check	800	18000
	GET /admin/identities	20	600
	*	400	9000
Staging & Development	/sessions/whoami	10	30
	/admin/oauth2/introspect	10	300
	/relation-tuples/check	10	300
	GET /admin/identities	1	10
	*	5	150

note

Growth plan rate limits also apply to the Legacy Scale plan.

Enterprise plan rate limits

Looking for enterprise-grade rate limits? Everything's possible. Get in touch with us to discuss your requirements.

Endpoint based rate limits

Endpoint based rate limits are controls applied to individual API endpoints within your Ory projects. Unlike project rate limits, which govern overall project request volumes, endpoint based rate limits focus on safeguarding specific functionalities against abuse.

How endpoint based rate limits work

These limits act as a first line of defense for your project endpoints. They analyze incoming request patterns and consider factors such as:

• Source IP Address: Identifies and potentially blocks requests from suspicious sources or those exhibiting behavior indicative of malicious activity.
• Request Frequency: Monitors how often requests are made to a specific endpoint to detect and thwart attempts to overwhelm the system or exploit vulnerabilities.
• User Authentication: (If applicable) Considers whether requests are authenticated and may apply different limits for authenticated vs. unauthenticated requests.
• Request Method: May apply different limits based on the HTTP method used (GET, POST, etc.).
• IP Whitelist Status: Applies higher limits to whitelisted IPs for Enterprise and Growth customers.

Purpose endpoint based rate limits

Ory implements endpoint based rate limits to proactively secure individual endpoints and protect against common attack vectors like brute-force and credential stuffing, while allowing for higher volumes of legitimate traffic from trusted sources. These attacks typically involve numerous attempts to guess credentials or exploit vulnerabilities, often from a limited set of IP addresses.

1. Enhanced security:

   • Restricts the number of requests from specific sources within a given timeframe.
   • Makes it significantly harder for attackers to succeed with brute-force or credential stuffing attacks.
   • Strengthens the security of your Ory projects and protects sensitive user data.

2. Protection against malicious bots:

   • Differentiates between genuine user traffic and potentially harmful bot activity.
   • Analyzes request patterns to identify and block automated malicious activities.

3. Safeguarding specific endpoints:

   • Offers granular control over how each endpoint handles traffic and responds to potential threats.
   • Allows fine-tuning of security measures for individual endpoints.
   • Optimizes protection without compromising the user experience.

4. Fair usage:

   • Complements project rate limits in ensuring fair resource allocation.
   • Contributes to a fairer and more stable platform for all users by mitigating abusive traffic.

5. Flexibility for high volume legitimate traffic:

   • Provides options for Enterprise and Growth customers to whitelist internal IPs for higher rate limits.
   • Balances security needs with the requirements of high-volume legitimate traffic.

Notes on rate limit rules

Rule management

The endpoint based rate limit rules are set and managed by Ory. These rules are not directly configurable by Enterprise and Growth customers yet.

IP Whitelisting for Enterprise and Growth plans

Enterprise and Growth plans can whitelist internal IPs. This feature is designed for cases where these IPs generate high volumes of legitimate calls that might otherwise trigger rate-limit rules.

• Whitelisted IPs are subject to the same rule structure but with higher limits.
• To whitelist IPs, please create a support ticket with Ory: Contact and support → Support in the Ory Console .
• This feature ensures that high volume traffic from trusted sources is not interrupted while maintaining strong security measures.