--- description: Create a rate limiting rule for your zone in the Cloudflare dashboard. title: Create a rate limiting rule in the dashboard image: https://developers.cloudflare.com/og-docs.png --- [Skip to content](#main-content) > Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://developers.cloudflare.com/waf/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Create a rate limiting rule in the dashboard Last updated Aug 24, 2026|Copy as Markdown|[View as Markdown](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/waf/rate-limiting-rules/create-zone-dashboard/index.md)|[Agent setup](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/agent-setup/) 1. In the Cloudflare dashboard, go to the **Security rules** page. [Go to **Security rules** ↗](https://dash.cloudflare.com/?to=/:account/:zone/security/security-rules) 2. To create a new empty rule, select **Create rule** \> **Rate limiting rules**. To duplicate an existing rule, select the three dots next to it > **Duplicate**. 3. Enter a descriptive name for the rule in **Rule name**. ![The Create rate limiting rule page in the Cloudflare dashboard](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/cdn-cgi/image/onerror=redirect,width=901,height=1245,format=webp/_astro/rate-limiting-create.qwL_1SJt.png) 4. In the **Field** drop-down, choose an HTTP property. For each request, the value of the property you choose for **Field** is compared to the value you specify for **Value** using the operator selected in **Operator**. 5. (Optional) Under **Cache status**, disable **Also apply rate limiting to cached assets** to consider only the requests that reach the origin when determining the rate. 6. Under **With the same characteristics**, add one or more characteristics that will define the request counters for rate limiting purposes. Each value combination will have its own counter to determine the rate. Refer to [How Cloudflare determines the request rate](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/waf/rate-limiting-rules/request-rate/) for more information. 7. (Optional) To define an expression that specifies the conditions for incrementing the rate counter, enable **Use custom counting expression** and set the expression. By default, the counting expression is the same as the rule expression. The counting expression can include [response fields](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/ruleset-engine/rules-language/fields/reference/?field-category=Response). 8. Under **When rate exceeds**, define the maximum number of requests and the time period to consider when determining the rate. 9. Under **Then take action**, select the rule action from the **Choose action** drop-down list. For example, selecting _Block_ tells Cloudflare to refuse requests in the conditions you specified when the request limit is reached. 10. (Optional) If you selected the _Block_ action, you can [configure a custom response](#configure-a-custom-response-for-blocked-requests) for requests exceeding the configured rate limit. 11. Select the mitigation timeout in the **Duration** dropdown. This is the time period during which Cloudflare applies the select action once the rate is reached. Enterprise customers with a paid add-on can [throttle requests](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/waf/rate-limiting-rules/parameters/#with-the-following-behavior) instead of applying the configured action for a selected duration. To throttle requests, under **With the following behavior** select _Throttle requests over the maximum configured rate_. 12. To save and deploy your rule, select **Deploy**. If you are not ready to deploy your rule, select **Save as Draft**. ## Configure a custom response for blocked requests Note This feature is only available on Pro plans and above. When you select the _Block_ action in a rule you can optionally define a custom response. The custom response has three settings: * **With response type**: Choose a content type or the default rate limiting response from the list. The available custom response types are the following: | Dashboard value | API value | | --------------- | ------------------ | | Custom HTML | "text/html" | | Custom Text | "text/plain" | | Custom JSON | "application/json" | | Custom XML | "text/xml" | * **With response code**: Choose an HTTP status code for the response, in the range 400-499\. The default response code is 429. * **Response body**: The body of the response. Configure a valid body according to the response type you selected. The maximum field size is 30 KB. Was this helpful? YesNo ## On this page [![](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/_astro/logo.te5VL_aD.svg)Docs](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","@id":"https://developers.cloudflare.com/waf/rate-limiting-rules/create-zone-dashboard/#page","headline":"Create a rate limiting rule in the dashboard · Cloudflare Web Application Firewall (WAF) docs","description":"Create a rate limiting rule for your zone in the Cloudflare dashboard.","url":"https://developers.cloudflare.com/waf/rate-limiting-rules/create-zone-dashboard/","inLanguage":"en","image":"https://developers.cloudflare.com/og-docs.png","dateModified":"2026-08-24","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Cloudflare","description":"One platform for your apps, agents, and workforce. 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