Rate Limiting
A restriction on how many requests a client can make in a given time — one of the most common defences scrapers must work around.
Full Definition
Rate limiting is a server-side policy that caps the number of requests a single client (identified by IP, session, API key, or user account) can make within a defined time window (e.g. 100 requests per minute). When a client exceeds the limit, the server returns a 429 Too Many Requests HTTP status, imposes a temporary block, or silently degrades response quality. Scrapers work around rate limiting through IP rotation (spreading requests across many IPs), request throttling (slowing the crawl rate), sticky sessions combined with multiple accounts, and respecting Retry-After headers to back off gracefully rather than hammering the server.
