Cloud Native API Gateway capacity thresholds, QPS, and quota limits-API Gateway(API Gateway)-阿里云帮助中心

Capacity thresholds, QPS benchmarks, and quota limits for Cloud-native API Gateway, covering both Dedicated and Serverless instances.

Note

This document covers capacity thresholds, QPS benchmarks, and quota limits for both Dedicated instances and Serverless instances of Cloud-native API Gateway.

Important

Serverless instances are currently in public beta. Quotas listed for Serverless are beta-period values and may change upon commercial release.

Instance types

Instance type	Resource model	Capacity management	Use cases
Dedicated instance	Dedicated physical resources per user	Choose a specification; higher spec = higher capacity	High-frequency stable workloads, compliance auditing, deep customization
Serverless instance	Platform-managed multi-tenant shared pool	Unified platform capacity ceiling; no specification choice	Variable traffic, small-to-medium scale, quick onboarding

Capacity thresholds (Dedicated instances)

The following table lists capacity thresholds per gateway specification. Full SLA coverage applies when metrics stay below the warning threshold. For critical workloads, keep metrics below the secure threshold.

Secure threshold: The gateway maintains high throughput and low latency even if traffic doubles.
Warning threshold: Exceeding this level may cause increased latency and stability risks during traffic surges.
The apigw.dev.x1 specification is a single-node deployment with no SLA guarantee, intended for testing only. You must use a multi-node specification for production.
The SLA does not cover request failures when CPU or memory exceeds the warning threshold. The gateway provides alarms for these thresholds. Monitor gateway load and triggered alarms closely.

Gateway specification	Client connections		New HTTPS connections		CPU utilization		Memory usage
Gateway specification	Secure threshold	Warning threshold	Secure threshold	Warning threshold	Secure threshold	Warning threshold	Secure threshold	Warning threshold
`apigw.dev.x1`	12,000	24,000	400	800	30%	60%	75%	75%
`apigw.small.x1`	24,000	48,000	800	1,600	30%	60%	75%	75%
`apigw.small.x2`	48,000	96,000	1,600	3,200	30%	60%	75%	75%
`apigw.small.x4`	96,000	192,000	3,200	6,400	30%	60%	75%	75%
`apigw.medium.x1`	192,000	384,000	6,400	12,800	30%	60%	75%	75%
`apigw.medium.x2`	384,000	768,000	12,800	25,600	30%	60%	75%	75%
`apigw.medium.x3`	576,000	1,152,000	19,200	38,400	30%	60%	75%	75%
`apigw.large.x1`	768,000	1,536,000	25,600	51,200	30%	60%	75%	75%
`apigw.large.x2`	1,536,000	3,072,000	51,200	102,400	30%	60%	75%	75%
`apigw.large.x3`	2,304,000	4,608,000	76,800	153,600	30%	60%	75%	75%
`apigw.large.x4`	3,072,000	6,144,000	102,400	204,800	30%	60%	75%	75%

Note

Serverless instances use platform-managed resources with no specification choice. See the "Serverless instance capacity thresholds" section for per-tenant thresholds.

QPS performance (Dedicated instances)

Gateway QPS throughput depends on factors such as response size, HTTPS usage, and gzip compression. The following tables list pessimistic QPS values at 30% CPU (secure threshold).

Note

HTTPS new connections consume significant CPU resources. For burst HTTPS scenarios, refer to the short connection + HTTPS data to evaluate gateway capacity.

Short connections

Response size	HTTPS	gzip	dev.x1	small.x1	small.x2	small.x4	medium.x1	medium.x2	medium.x3	large.x1	large.x2	large.x3	large.x4
1 KB	No	No	1700	3400	6800	13600	28000	56000	84000	112000	224000	336000	448000
1 KB	Yes	No	500	1000	2000	4000	8700	17400	26100	34800	69600	104400	139200

Long connections

Response size	HTTPS	gzip	dev.x1	small.x1	small.x2	small.x4	medium.x1	medium.x2	medium.x3	large.x1	large.x2	large.x3	large.x4
1 KB	No	No	2200	4400	8800	17600	35000	70000	105000	140000	280000	420000	560000
1 KB	Yes	No	2000	4000	8000	16000	32000	64000	96000	128000	256000	384000	512000
1 KB	Yes	Yes	1700	3400	6800	13600	28000	56000	84000	112000	224000	336000	448000
10 KB	No	No	1800	3600	7200	14400	30000	60000	90000	120000	240000	360000	480000
10 KB	Yes	No	1700	3400	6800	13600	28000	56000	84000	112000	224000	336000	448000
10 KB	Yes	Yes	1000	2000	4000	8000	16000	32000	48000	64000	128000	192000	256000

Quota limits

Global quotas

Global quotas apply to both Serverless instances and Dedicated instances regardless of specification. To increase quotas, submit a ticket.

Quota item	Quota
Instances per region	100
Consumer groups per region (max)	1000
Consumers per consumer group	500
Consumers per region (max)	100000

Instance-specific quotas

The table below integrates Serverless per-tenant quotas with Dedicated instance quotas across 11 specifications for side-by-side comparison. Dedicated instances can scale up by upgrading specifications; if the highest specification is still insufficient, submit a ticket for further quota increases. The Number of consumers and Consumer authorization rules are listed as separate quota items and are counted and validated separately.

	Serverless	DEV	Small			Medium			Large
Quota item	Serverless	dev.x1	small.x1	small.x2	small.x4	medium.x1	medium.x2	medium.x3	large.x1	large.x2	large.x3	large.x4
Published domains	100	100	200	300	400	500	600	800	1000	1200	1400	1600
Services	200	200	800	1200	1600	2000	2500	3000	4000	4500	5000	6000
Online routes total (HTTP API routes, REST API endpoints, Ingress routes)	2500	2500	5000	6000	7000	7500	8000	9000	10000	11000	12000	13000
Number of consumers	500	500	2000	4000	6000	8000	12000	16000	20000	27500	35000	42500
Consumer authorization rules	500	500	2000	4000	6000	8000	12000	16000	20000	27500	35000	42500
Consumer quota rules	500	500	2000	4000	6000	8000	12000	16000	20000	27500	35000	42500
K8s service sources	1	3	3	3	3	5	5	5	5	5	5	5
Installed plugins	5	5	10	10	10	20	20	20	30	30	30	30
Custom plugins uploaded	Not supported	10	20	20	20	50	50	50	80	80	80	80

For Serverless instances, purchasing a consumer (group) rule expansion count simultaneously increases the limits of the three consumer-related quotas: Consumer authorization rules, Number of consumers, and Consumer quota rules. For billing information, see Serverless billing overview. The maximum quota increase is subject to the purchase page. For quotas of other gateway types and other quota items of Serverless instances, submit a ticket to request quota increases.

Consumer quota calculation

Number of consumers and Consumer authorization rules are two separate quota items, counted and validated independently.

The limits for Number of consumers and Consumer authorization rules are listed separately by specification in the table above. See the instance specification quota table for other values.

Number of consumers = the number of distinct consumers referenced by direct authorizations and consumer-group authorizations on the current gateway. A consumer referenced by multiple rules or groups is counted once. An empty consumer group adds zero consumers.

Consumer authorization rules = the number of retained consumer authorization rules on the current gateway. Each direct authorization rule counts as one, and each consumer-group authorization rule also counts as one, regardless of the number of group members or whether the group is empty.

Each usage value is compared with its corresponding quota limit independently: the number of consumers must not exceed the Number of consumers limit, and the number of consumer authorization rules must not exceed the Consumer authorization rules limit. A whitelist or special configuration can raise the applicable limit, but does not change these counting rules.

Serverless instance capacity thresholds

Note

Serverless instances use a platform-managed multi-tenant shared pool with no specification choice. All tenants share a unified capacity boundary. The following are per-tenant thresholds for the public beta period.

Per-tenant capacity thresholds

Metric	Beta quota	Description
Per-tenant QPS	10000	Evaluate upgrading to a Dedicated instance when approaching this limit; submit a ticket to exceed it
New connections per second	2000	Platform-enforced per-tenant connection rate limit
Total connections	100000	Per-tenant active connection limit at the gateway ingress

Elastic capacity

Platform-managed elasticity: Serverless compute resources are auto-scaled by the platform. Tenants do not need to manually scale up or down.
Tenant-level isolation: Each tenant has a dedicated ingress, with traffic strictly isolated from other tenants.
Over-limit handling: When QPS, connections, or routes exceed quota limits, the platform returns throttling responses. For higher quotas, upgrade to a Dedicated instance or submit a ticket.

Quota increases and instance upgrades

Scenario	Recommended path
Dedicated instance quota insufficient	Upgrade to a higher specification; submit a ticket if still insufficient
Serverless instance QPS approaching 10000	Evaluate upgrading to a Dedicated instance
Serverless instance requires higher SLA	Upgrade to a Dedicated instance