Gin guide · Go SDK

Gin rate limiting,per API key and per plan.

One router.Use() checks each caller’s key, charges their credits, and applies their plan’s limit before your handler runs — on every instance at once.

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

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API requests validated
100M+
Average key validation
<5ms
Average analytics ingest
<5ms
Check and log, end to end
<10ms

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

Gin has no built-in limiter, so teams wrap x/time/rate in a HandlerFunc — or add a third-party package with a Redis store.

With a custom middlewaretoday
// main.go — a hand-rolled limiterfunc RateLimit(l *rate.Limiter) gin.HandlerFunc {
	return func(c *gin.Context) {
		if !l.Allow() {
			c.AbortWithStatusJSON(http.StatusTooManyRequests,
				gin.H{"error": "rate limited"})
			return
		}
		c.Next()
	}
}
  • One bucket for everyone unless you build a per-key map
  • Per-process counts — replicas each allow the full limit
  • 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 Ginone 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

Gin 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/gin-gonic/gin

  2. 2

    Set your project key

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

  3. 3

    Add the Gin middleware

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

main.gogo get github.com/Req-Key/reqkey-go@latest github.com/gin-gonic/gin
package main
 
import (
	"os"
 
	"github.com/Req-Key/reqkey-go"
	reqkeygin "github.com/Req-Key/reqkey-go/gin"
	"github.com/gin-gonic/gin"
)
 
func main() {
	router := gin.Default()
 
	router.Use(reqkeygin.MustMiddleware(reqkey.MiddlewareOptions{
		ProjectKey: os.Getenv("REQKEY_PROJECT_KEY"),
		APIID:      "api_payments",
		Mode:       reqkey.ModeBoth,
		KeyName:    "X-Startup-Key",
	}))
 
	router.GET("/protected", func(c *gin.Context) {
		decision, _ := c.Get(reqkey.ContextDecisionKey)
		c.JSON(200, gin.H{"request_id": decision.(*reqkey.VerificationResult).RequestID})
	})
 
	_ = router.Run(":8080")
}
Also in Go: net/http, Echo, 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 Gin 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 Gin teams hit in production.

Native adapter

reqkeygin.MustMiddleware returns a gin.HandlerFunc — add it globally or to a route group like /v1.

Aborts cleanly

A missing or invalid key gets a 401, no credits a 402, no access a 403, and too many requests a 429 — and the chain stops before your handler.

Same options everywhere

MiddlewareOptions are shared by every Go adapter, so moving between net/http, Gin, Echo, and Fiber is a one-line change.

Gin rate limiting: the questions teams ask.

Something else? Ask the team or read the docs.

  • Yes — call v1 := router.Group("/v1") and v1.Use(...) so public routes outside the group stay open.

  • Get reqkey.ContextDecisionKey from the context and read CreditsRemaining on the *reqkey.VerificationResult.

  • 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 Gin 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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