# Rate limiting

Rate limiting is a website's cap on how many requests an IP address, a session or an account may send in a period, enforced with HTTP 429 responses, delays or temporary blocks. Proxies help when the limit is per address: rotating across many exits turns a per-IP ceiling into a budget you control. They do not help when the limit is per account or per fingerprint, and they never excuse hammering a target.


## Where limits live

- **Per IP**: the most common. Residential rotation is the direct answer.
- **Per session or cookie**: rotation does not help; pace the session.
- **Per account**: nothing network-side helps; that is the site's business rule.
- **Per ASN or country**: rare, but hosting ranges often get a lower ceiling than residential ones.


## Polite defaults

Spread requests over the day, keep a per-domain rate a human could plausibly generate per exit, back off on 429 with the `Retry-After` header, and cache what does not change. A pool is a way to be many polite visitors, not one impolite one.


## How it works at ProxShift

ProxShift gateways apply no request-rate limit and never return 429 themselves; only the destination does. Per-domain rates are the client's responsibility, and the acceptable use policy forbids attacks on any target.

Source: https://proxshift.com/glossary/rate-limiting