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Create a root key with the permissions listed on this page under Root Keys in the dashboard sidebar. CLI commands can instead use a session from unkey login with the required permissions. See Permission reference for every permission.
Check a for any identifier, such as a user ID or IP address. The response says whether the request passed and how much is left in the window. The namespace is created on first use. If an override matches the identifier, its limit and window are used instead of yours. A deleted namespace isn’t recreated. The call fails with 410 Gone and err:unkey:data:ratelimit_namespace_gone. Calls POST /v2/ratelimit.limit. See Limit and multi-limit.

Usage

Flags

integer
required
Window length in milliseconds, from 1000 (one second) to 2592000000 (30 days).
string
required
The thing being limited, for example a user id or IP address. Up to 512 characters.
integer
required
Maximum operations allowed in the window. At least 1.
string
required
Namespace id or name, up to 512 characters. A new name creates the namespace.
integer
How much of the limit this call uses. Defaults to 1. A cost of 0 checks the limit without using any, but --cost=0 is treated as leaving the flag off, so it charges 1. Use --body to send a cost of 0.

Shared flags

Every resource command takes these. See CLI output and shared flags.
string
Root key used for the request. Falls back to UNKEY_ROOT_KEY, then stored credentials, including a CLI session. See CLI authentication for the full precedence order.
string
default:"https://api.unkey.com"
Base URL of the API. Falls back to UNKEY_API_BASE_URL. You don’t normally need to set it.
string
default:"~/.unkey/config.toml"
Path of the TOML config file. Falls back to UNKEY_CONFIG. An explicit --config takes precedence over a stored CLI session. Browser login stores a session, not a root key in this file. See CLI authentication.
enum
default:"human"
Use human (default) for name-first summary tables and single-response trees, or json for the unchanged full response envelope, including all fields and pagination. Trees wrap long values without truncation. Terminal tables use relative timestamps and may shorten display names and descriptions, but never identifiers, slugs, or credentials. Redirected human output keeps complete values and uses RFC3339 UTC timestamps. Falls back to UNKEY_OUTPUT; other values are rejected. --json also selects JSON output. Add --debug to print the request ID to stderr. See Output formats.
boolean
Print the successful response’s request ID to stderr, separate from stdout.
boolean
Print the full response as JSON. Takes precedence over a valid --output or UNKEY_OUTPUT value.
string
Send this JSON as the whole request body instead of using the command’s flags. You can’t combine it with them.

Required permissions

ratelimit.*.limit or ratelimit.<namespace_id>.limit. Creating a namespace on first use also needs ratelimit.*.create_namespace. See Root key permissions.

Examples

100 requests per minute
Expensive operation costing 5
Or send the whole request as JSON:
Raw body
Last modified on October 28, 2026