This version is still in development and is not considered stable yet. For the latest stable version, please use Spring Cloud Gateway 4.1.5!

RateLimiter Filter

The RateLimiter Filter use Bucket4j to determine if the current request is allowed to proceed. If it is not, a status of HTTP 429 - Too Many Requests (by default) is returned.

Please review Bucket4j Concepts prior to reading this documentation.

The algorithm used by Bucket4j is the Token Bucket Algorithm.

The filter takes a keyResolver parameter and other Bucket4j configuration parameters. The key resolver is a java.util.Function<ServerRequest, String>. This allows the user to extract any information out of the request to use as a key in the configured Bucket4j distribution mechanism. A common key would be the Principal retrieved from the ServerRequest.

By default, if the key resolver does not find a key, requests are denied with the FORBIDDEN status.

Currently, the only way to configure key resolvers is through the Java DSL and not through external properties.

Bucket4j Distributed Configuration

A bean of type io.github.bucket4j.distributed.proxy.AsyncProxyManager. To do this, use the ProxyManager.asAsync() method.

RateLimiterConfiguration.java
import com.github.benmanes.caffeine.cache.Caffeine;
import io.github.bucket4j.caffeine.CaffeineProxyManager;

@Configuration
class RateLimiterConfiguration {

	@Bean
	public AsyncProxyManager<String> caffeineProxyManager() {
		Caffeine<String, RemoteBucketState> builder = (Caffeine) Caffeine.newBuilder().maximumSize(100);
		return new CaffeineProxyManager<>(builder, Duration.ofMinutes(1)).asAsync();
	}
}

The above configures an AsyncProxyManager using Caffeine, a local in-memory cache, useful for testing.

Configuring Buckets

By default, the Bucket is configured using a configured capacity and period. Capacity is how many tokens the bucket has. The period is a java.util.Duration that defines how long for the tokens available in the bucket to be regenerated.

Other configuration items are the statusCode returned when the request is denied. By default it is 429, TO_MANY_REQUESTS. The tokens item defines how many tokens are used for each request and defaults to 1. The headerName item is the name of the header that contains the number of remaining tokens, this defaults to X-RateLimit-Remaining. The timeout option defines a Duration for the distributed bucket to return an answer and is not set by default.

The following is an example of configuring a route with rate limiting:

RouteConfiguration.java
import static org.springframework.cloud.gateway.server.mvc.filter.Bucket4jFilterFunctions.rateLimit;
import static org.springframework.cloud.gateway.server.mvc.handler.GatewayRouterFunctions.route;
import static org.springframework.cloud.gateway.server.mvc.handler.HandlerFunctions.http;

@Configuration
class RouteConfiguration {

    @Bean
    public RouterFunction<ServerResponse> gatewayRouterFunctionsRateLimited() {
		return route("rate_limited_route")
			.GET("/api/**", http("https://example.org"))
				.filter(rateLimit(c -> c.setCapacity(100)
					.setPeriod(Duration.ofMinutes(1))
					.setKeyResolver(request -> request.servletRequest().getUserPrincipal().getName())))
				.build();
    }
}

This configures the rate limiting with a bucket capacity of 100 tokens per minute. The key resolver gets the principle name from the Servlet request.