[[rate-limit]]
=== Rate limit the flow of events
beta[]

++++
<titleabbrev>rate_limit</titleabbrev>
++++

The `rate_limit` processor limits the throughput of events based on
the specified configuration.

In the current implementation, rate-limited events are dropped. Future
implementations may allow rate-limited events to be handled differently.

[source,yaml]
-----------------------------------------------------
processors:
- rate_limit:
   limit: "10000/m"
-----------------------------------------------------

[source,yaml]
-----------------------------------------------------
processors:
- rate_limit:
   fields:
   - "cloudfoundry.org.name"
   limit: "400/s"
-----------------------------------------------------

[source,yaml]
-----------------------------------------------------
processors:
- if.equals.cloudfoundry.org.name: "acme"
  then:
  - rate_limit:
      limit: "500/s"
-----------------------------------------------------

The following settings are supported:

`limit`:: The rate limit. Supported time units for the rate are `s` (per second), `m` (per minute), and `h` (per hour).
`fields`:: (Optional) List of fields. The rate limit will be applied to each distinct value derived by combining the values of these fields.
