---
title: Understanding rate limits in Scaleway Generative APIs - Serverless
description: Learn how Organization quotas, Project rate limits, and User budgets work and how to configure them in the console.
tags: generative-apis-serverless ai-data rate-limits organization-quotas project-rate-limits user-budgets
dates:
  validation: 2026-10-23
  posted: 2024-08-27
---

## Overview of quotas, rate limits, and budgets

Scaleway Generative APIs - Serverless has tools to manage usage, prevent abuse, and give you granular control over your spending across teams and end users.

<D2Schema title="Quotas, rate limits and budget" description="Users have a daily or monthly budget, inside a project with rate limits, inside an Organization with quotas.">
```d2
org: Organisation A - Global Organization Quotas (token/minute) {
  icon: scw:cat-organization

  proj_prod: Projet A - Project rate limit (token/minute) {
    icon: scw:application

    user1: User A - User daily budget (token amount) {
      icon: scw:user
    }
    user2: User B - User monthly budget (token amount) {
      icon: scw:user
    }
  }

  proj_dev: Projet B - Project rate limit (token/minute) {
    icon: scw:application

    user3: User C - User daily & monthly budget (token amount) {
      icon: scw:user
    }
  }
}
```
</D2Schema>

- [**Organization quotas:**](/organizations-and-projects/organization/organization-quotas/#generative-apis---serverless) System-level limits managed by Scaleway. They apply globally across your entire Organization (measured in tokens per minute), to manage burst.
- **Project rate limits:** Custom limits set by you at the Project level. These cannot exceed the top-level Organization quota (measured in tokens per minute) to manage burst.
- **User budgets:** Usage limits set per end user (enforced on a daily or monthly timeframe, and measured in token volume) to manage costs.

## Comparison of the different limits

| Limit type | Enforced at | Measured in | Managed by |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| **Organization quotas** | Organization | Tokens/min, Queries/min | Scaleway (default) |
| **Project rate limits** | Project | Tokens/min, Queries/min | You (Console) |
| **User budgets** | API key / End user | Daily / Monthly allowance ($ or tokens) | You (Console) | 

Base Organization limits (quotas) apply automatically if you registered a valid payment method, and are upgraded when you [verify your identity](/account/setup-lifecycle/verify-identity/). These values apply to your Organization, and are shared by all Projects within your Organization. The exact limit values are detailed in [Organization quotas for Generative APIs - Serverless](/organizations-and-projects/organization/organization-quotas/#generative-apis---serverless).

## How to configure Project rate limits and User budget limits

You can customize Project-level rate limits and User budgets directly from the Scaleway console:

1. In the [Scaleway console](https://console.scaleway.com/), go to **AI** > **Generative APIs**. A page displaying the list of models opens.
2. Click the **Rate limit** tab.
3. From here, click **Edit limits** next to the model you want, and choose:
   - **Project rate limit:** Set maximum tokens per minute allocated to this specific Project. Must be inferior to the Organization quota. 
   - **User daily budget:** Define a daily consumption limit for end users.
   - **User monthly budget:** Define a monthly consumption limit for end users.
   
   A dialog box appears.
4. Set the new limit, and click **Edit rate limit** (or **Edit usage limit**) to confirm. 

## How to increase the Organization rate limits (Organization quotas)

We actively monitor usage and will improve rates based on feedback.
If you need to increase your rate limits:
- [Verify your identity](/account/setup-lifecycle/verify-identity/) to automatically increase your rate limit as described below.
- Use the [Batches API](https://console.scaleway.com/generative-api/batches) for non-real-time workloads. Requests performed through the Batches API do not have a rate limit and are billed with a [-50% discount compared to standard model prices](https://www.scaleway.com/en/pricing/model-as-a-service/#generative-apis).
- Use [Generative APIs- Dedicated Deployment](https://console.scaleway.com/generative-api/deployments), which provides dedicated capacity and does not enforce rate limits (you remain limited by the total provisioned capacity).
- Contact your existing Scaleway account manager or our Sales team to discuss volume commitment for specific models that will allow us to increase your quota proportionally.

## Why do we set rate limits?

The Organization quotas safeguard against abuse or misuse of Scaleway Generative APIs - Serverless, helping to ensure fair access to the API with consistent performance.

Regarding the Project rate limits and User budgets, these mechanisms protect your account against unexpected runaway costs, guard against API misuse, and ensure consistent, reliable performance for all workloads.

## How can I monitor rate limits?

Rate limit information is provided in HTTP response headers:

| Header field | Example value | Description |
|--------------------------|:-------------------------:|:-------------------------------------------------------------:|
| x-ratelimit-limit-requests       | 600              | Maximum number of requests allowed over a minute.                         |
| x-ratelimit-remaining-requests       | 599              | Remaining number of requests allowed before reaching rate limit over a minute.           |
| x-ratelimit-reset-requests       | 250ms              | Time until rate limit request usage resets to its initial value.          |
| x-ratelimit-limit-tokens       | 1000000              | Maximum number of tokens (input and output) allowed over a minute.               |
| x-ratelimit-remaining-tokens     | 999976              | Remaining number of tokens allowed before reaching rate limit over a minute.           |
| x-ratelimit-reset-tokens      | 35ms              | Time until rate limit token usage resets to its initial value.  |

You can see these headers by performing the following HTTP request, using the `curl -i` option:

```bash
curl -i https://api.scaleway.ai/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SCW_SECRET_KEY" \
  -d '{
    "model": "mistral-small-3.2-24b-instruct-2506",
    "messages": [
      {
        "role": "system",
        "content": "You are a helpful assistant."
      },
      {
        "role": "user",
        "content": "Hello!"
      }
    ]
  }'
```