Custom Overrides

Give specific users higher (or lower) rate limits without code changes

Override default rate limits for specific identifiers directly from the dashboard. No code changes or deploys needed — changes roll out globally in seconds.

When to use this

VIP customers

Enterprise customers need higher limits than your default tier.

Partners & integrations

Integration partners building on your API need room to grow.

Throttle abusers

Reduce limits for suspicious users without blocking entirely.

Testing & debugging

Temporarily increase limits for specific test accounts.

How it works

1. You define default limits in your code
2. Create overrides in the dashboard for specific identifiers
3. When that identifier is rate limited, Unkey uses the override instead of the default

Override priority: Exact matches > Wildcard matches > Default limits

Create an override

1. Go to your namespace

   Click Ratelimit in the sidebar → select your namespace → Overrides tab.

   If you don’t have a namespace yet, create one first.

2. Add the override

   

   Enter:

   • Identifier: The exact identifier or wildcard pattern
   • Limit: Custom request limit
   • Duration: Time window for the limit
3. Save

   Click Override Identifier. Changes propagate globally within ~60 seconds (usually much faster).

Example: Enterprise customer

Your default limit is 100 requests/minute. Acme Corp needs 10,000/minute.

Identifier	Limit	Duration
acme-corp	10000	60s

Now when acme-corp hits your API, they get 10,000/min instead of 100/min.

Wildcard patterns

Use * to match multiple identifiers at once.

Examples

Pattern	Matches
*@acme.com	[e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail]
enterprise:*	enterprise:123, enterprise:acme, enterprise:test
user_*_prod	user_123_prod, user_abc_prod

Priority

Exact matches always win over wildcards:

Override	Limit
*@acme.com	500/min
[e-mail]	10000/min

Result:

• [e-mail] → 10,000/min (exact match)
• [e-mail] → 500/min (wildcard match)
• [e-mail] → default limit

Managing overrides via API

Create overrides programmatically:

curl -X POST https://api.unkey.com/v2/ratelimits.setOverride \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $UNKEY_ROOT_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "namespaceId": "rl_...",
    "identifier": "enterprise:acme",
    "limit": 10000,
    "duration": 60000
  }'

This enables workflows like:

• Automatically increasing limits when users upgrade
• Syncing limits from your billing system
• Temporary increases during promotions

Common patterns

Tier-based limits

free:*        → 100/min
pro:*         → 1000/min  
enterprise:*  → 10000/min

Use prefixed identifiers in your code: ${plan}:${userId}

Domain-based limits

*@bigcustomer.com  → 5000/min
*@partner.io       → 2000/min

Temporary boost

Need to give someone extra capacity for a demo or migration? Add an override, then remove it when done. No code changes needed.

Removing overrides

Delete an override from the dashboard or API. The identifier immediately falls back to default limits (or the next matching wildcard).

Next steps

How it works

Understand rate limiting architecture

Multi-ratelimits

Configure multiple limits per key