Laravel API Rate Limiting: Patterns for Public and Partner APIs

Every public REST API eventually faces abuse: scrapers, credential stuffing, or a partner script stuck in a retry loop. Laravel's built-in rate limiter is powerful but defaults are rarely enough for multi-tenant SaaS or white-label integrations.

Tier limits by identity, not just IP

Authenticate partners with API keys or OAuth client credentials, then apply limits per key and per tenant. Free tiers might allow 60 requests per minute; enterprise tiers get 600. Store limits in the database so sales can upgrade without deploys.

Return actionable 429 responses

Include Retry-After headers and JSON error bodies explaining the limit. Log throttle hits separately from 401/403 to distinguish attacks from misconfigured clients.

Combine edge and application limits

Cloudflare or nginx rate limits catch volumetric attacks before PHP. Application-level limits enforce business rules. We use both on HostEager-managed client APIs.

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