specification: API Commons Rate Limits
specificationVersion: '0.1'
schema: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/interface-research/main/schema/api-commons.yml#/$defs/RateLimits
provider: KEDA
providerId: keda
created: '2026-05-04'
# Provenance stamped 2026-08-11: this artifact was written by the API Evangelist
# bulk sweep dated 2026-05-04, not harvested from the provider. See roadmap#35.
method: generated
modified: '2026-05-05'
reconciled: true
tags:
  - Autoscaling
  - CNCF
  - Event-Driven
  - Graduated
  - Kubernetes
  - Rate Limiting
description: KEDA does not operate a hosted API; it is an in-cluster controller plus an
  external-metrics API server consumed by the Kubernetes HPA. There are no first-party,
  per-second / per-minute rate limits. Polling cadence and concurrent-event behavior are
  configured per ScaledObject via pollingInterval, cooldownPeriod, and per-scaler caps.
sources:
  - https://keda.sh/docs/latest/concepts/scaling-deployments/
  - https://keda.sh/docs/latest/operate/metrics-server/
responseCodes:
  throttled: 429
  serviceUnavailable: 503
limits:
  - name: ScaledObject pollingInterval
    scope: scaledobject
    metric: poll_seconds
    limit: configured per ScaledObject (default 30s)
    notes: Effective request rate to the upstream event source is determined by
      pollingInterval and the number of ScaledObjects targeting it.
  - name: External Metrics API (in-cluster)
    scope: cluster
    metric: varies
    limit: bounded by Kubernetes apiserver and metrics-server resource limits, not by KEDA
policies:
  - name: Polling Cadence
    description: Tune pollingInterval and cooldownPeriod per ScaledObject to balance scaling
      responsiveness against load on the event source.
  - name: Scaler-Side Limits
    description: Each scaler (Kafka, RabbitMQ, SQS, etc.) inherits the rate-limit semantics
      of the underlying source; KEDA itself does not throttle.
  - name: Backoff Strategy
    description: KEDA scalers apply exponential backoff on transient scaler errors before
      surfacing a ScalerError CloudEvent.
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: kin@apievangelist.com