Echo guide · Go SDK

Echo rate limiting,beyond the in-memory store.

One e.Use() validates the caller’s key, charges their credits, and applies their plan’s limit — with the count shared across every Echo instance.

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  • Keys issued per customer
  • Credits that refill
  • Limits per plan, not per process

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API requests validated
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Average analytics ingest
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Check and log, end to end
<10ms

The usual Echo rate limiter counts requests. It doesn’t know your customers.

Echo ships a RateLimiter middleware with an in-memory store, identifying callers by IP unless you supply an IdentifierExtractor.

With middleware.RateLimitertoday
// main.go — Echo’s built-in limitere.Use(middleware.RateLimiter(
	middleware.NewRateLimiterMemoryStore(rate.Limit(20)),
))
  • The memory store is per process
  • Keyed by IP address by default, not by the customer who is paying
  • No API keys: issuing, hashing, scoping, and revoking them is still yours to build
  • No credit balance: a request can’t cost 5 on one route and 1 on another, or refill each month
  • One limit for everyone — no per-plan limits for Free, Pro, and Enterprise customers
  • No per-customer usage log to answer “why was I blocked?” or bill against
With ReqKey in Echoone middleware
  • API keys issued per customer, prefixed, hashed, and revocable from the dashboard
  • A credit balance per customer — price each route, refill every hour, day, week, or month
  • Rate limits set per plan, shared by all of a customer’s keys, from 1 second to 24 hours
  • The same count on every worker, instance, and region — no Redis to run
  • Over the limit? A 429 with Retry-After, and no credits charged
  • Every request logged per customer — status, latency, endpoint — in under 5ms
Handlers read the verdict with c.Get(reqkey.ContextDecisionKey). See the code

Echo in three steps, one of them code.

ReqKey runs inside your API, not in front of it. Your server asks one question per request and gets an answer in under 5ms.

  1. 1

    Install the SDK

    go get github.com/Req-Key/reqkey-go@latest github.com/labstack/echo/v4

  2. 2

    Set your project key

    Copy it from the dashboard into REQKEY_PROJECT_KEY. It stays on your server.

  3. 3

    Add the Echo middleware

    Every request is checked, charged, and logged before your handler runs.

main.gogo get github.com/Req-Key/reqkey-go@latest github.com/labstack/echo/v4
package main
 
import (
	"os"
 
	"github.com/Req-Key/reqkey-go"
	reqkeyecho "github.com/Req-Key/reqkey-go/echo"
	"github.com/labstack/echo/v4"
)
 
func main() {
	server := echo.New()
 
	server.Use(reqkeyecho.MustMiddleware(reqkey.MiddlewareOptions{
		ProjectKey: os.Getenv("REQKEY_PROJECT_KEY"),
		APIID:      "api_payments",
		Mode:       reqkey.ModeBoth,
		KeyName:    "X-Startup-Key",
	}))
 
	server.GET("/protected", func(c echo.Context) error {
		decision := c.Get(reqkey.ContextDecisionKey).(*reqkey.VerificationResult)
		return c.JSON(200, map[string]string{"request_id": decision.RequestID})
	})
 
	server.Logger.Fatal(server.Start(":8080"))
}
Also in Go: net/http, Gin, Fiber, ChiFull Go reference

Every request gets one of these answers

  • 200Valid key, credits charged — your handler runs
  • 402Out of credits
  • 403Key disabled, or not allowed on this API
  • 429Over the rate limit — no credits charged

Where ReqKey sits

Your customer
Your APIReqKey, under 5ms
Your handler

Responses go straight back to your customer. ReqKey sees the key check and the log line, nothing else.

Credits

Charge each route what it costs you.

A lookup can cost 1 credit and a render 5, from the same balance. Excluded paths are never validated, charged, or recorded. In Go:

Per-route credits · Go
// Exact paths or trailing-* prefixes: never validated, charged, or recorded
ExcludePaths: []string{"/health", "/openapi.json", "/docs/*", "/cron/*"},
 
// Or decide per request with a resolver
ShouldProtect: func(ctx context.Context, request *reqkey.MiddlewareRequest) (bool, error) {
	return strings.HasPrefix(request.Path, "/api/"), nil
},
 
// Charge different endpoints differently (non-negative integers)
CreditsResolver: func(ctx context.Context, request *reqkey.MiddlewareRequest) (int, error) {
	if request.Method == http.MethodPost {
		return 5, nil
	}
	return 1, nil
},

Rate limits

Set limits on plans, not in code.

Your Echo code never hard-codes a number. Each plan carries its credits, refill, and rate limit; moving a customer to Pro changes all three with no deploy.

PlanCreditsRate limit
Free1,000 / month5 req / s
Pro50,000 / month50 req / s
Scale1,000,000 / month500 req / s
429Over the limit, a call is answered with Retry-After and costs nothing — no credits and no quota.

Example plans. You name them and pick the numbers.

Notes for Echo teams hit in production.

Native adapter

The Echo adapter returns an echo.MiddlewareFunc, so it sits in e.Use or on a group like any other middleware.

Plans instead of one number

The built-in limiter has one rate. ReqKey applies whatever limit is on each customer’s plan — 10/s on Free, 200/s on Scale.

Shared options

The same MiddlewareOptions as net/http, Gin, and Fiber — mode, key location, excluded paths, credits, and failure mode.

Echo rate limiting: the questions teams ask.

Something else? Ask the team or read the docs.

  • On keyed customer routes, yes. Keep it for anonymous endpoints if you want a coarse IP limit there.

  • The adapter targets github.com/labstack/echo/v4.

  • On their plan or on the customer (consumer) in ReqKey — a number of requests per window from 1 second to 24 hours, shared by all of that customer’s keys. Your Echo code never hard-codes a limit, so upgrading a customer is a dashboard change, not a deploy.

  • A check averages under 5ms. ReqKey runs inside your app as middleware, not as a gateway in front of it, so responses go straight back to your customer.

  • You choose: fail closed and answer 503, or fail open and let requests through. Invalid keys are denied either way, and a validation is never retried, so no one is charged twice.

More Go guides.

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