Understanding AWS Throttling errors

AWS Throttling limits

2 min read | by Jordi Prats

When working with AWS, one might encounter errors related to throttling, such as:

Error: An error occurred (Throttling) when calling the GenerateServiceLastAccessedDetails operation (reached max retries: 4): Rate exceeded

This error occurs when an AWS service has throttled your activity: the number of API requests made for that particular account and region have exceeded the rate limit allowed for that particular service.

In AWS, throttling occurs when an application sends too many requests to a specific service within a given timeframe, causing AWS to reject some of the requests.

For every AWS service, there are it's own set of limits, and these limits vary based on factors like service type, the number of requests per second, and the region you're operating in.

Throttling it's supposed to ensure fair use: and prevent a single client from overwhelming the service. It also helps to prevent overloading, which could lead to performance degradation.

Since these limits are enforced on a per-region basis, your account may have different request limits depending on the AWS Region in which you're operating. You can find specific service limits and best practices for managing them in AWS's official documentation for service limits.

When you encounter a throttling error, you can take the following steps to mitigate it:

  1. Retry the request: If the error is transient, you can retry the request after a short delay. AWS SDKs and CLI tools can automatically handle retries for you, but you can also implement your own retry logic.
  2. Back off and retry: If you're making a high volume of requests, consider implementing an exponential backoff strategy: Every time you receive an error, add an extra wait time before retrying.
  3. Optimize your requests: Review your application's request patterns and optimize them to reduce the number of requests made to the service. For example, you can use batch operations to combine multiple requests into a single request.
  4. Contact AWS Support: If you continue to experience throttling errors, and you believe you need a higher request limit, you can contact AWS Support to request a limit increase or to get more information about the specific limits for the service you're using.

Posted on 10/10/2024

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