Rate Limiter

Class: RateLimiterBlockV1

Source: inference.core.workflows.core_steps.flow_control.rate_limiter.v1.RateLimiterBlockV1

The Rate Limiter block controls the execution frequency of a branch within a Workflow by enforcing a cooldown period. It ensures that the connected steps do not run more frequently than a specified interval, helping to manage resource usage and prevent over-execution.

Block usage

Rate Limiter is useful when you have two blocks that are directly connected, as shown below:

--- input_a --> ┌───────────┐ ┌───────────┐ --- input_b --> │ step_1 │ --> output_a --> │ step_2 │ --- input_c --> └───────────┘ └───────────┘

If you want to throttle the Step 2 execution rate - you should apply rate limiter in between:

• keep the existing blocks configuration as is (do not change connections)

• set depends_on reference of Rate Limiter into output_a

• set next_steps reference to be a list referring to [$steps.step_2]

• adjust cooldown_seconds to specify what is the number of seconds that must be awaited before next time when step_2 is fired

Cooldown limitations

Current implementation of cooldown is limited to video processing - using this block in context of a Workflow that is run behind HTTP service (Roboflow Hosted API, Dedicated Deployment or self-hosted inference server) will have no effect for processing HTTP requests.

Type identifier

Use the following identifier in step "type" field: roboflow_core/rate_limiter@v1to add the block as as step in your workflow.

Properties

Name	Type	Description	Refs
name	str	Enter a unique identifier for this step..	❌
cooldown_seconds	float	The minimum number of seconds between allowed executions..	❌

The Refs column marks possibility to parametrise the property with dynamic values available in workflow runtime. See Bindings for more info.

Available Connections

Compatible Blocks

Check what blocks you can connect to Rate Limiter in version v1.

• inputs: Identify Changes, Relative Static Crop, Background Color Visualization, First Non Empty Or Default, Line Counter Visualization, Barcode Detection, Detections Stabilizer, Detections Transformation, Object Detection Model, Cache Set, Camera Focus, Color Visualization, Roboflow Dataset Upload, Expression, Detections Filter, SmolVLM2, CSV Formatter, Object Detection Model, Bounding Box Visualization, OCR Model, Rate Limiter, Path Deviation, JSON Parser, Clip Comparison, Identify Outliers, Model Comparison Visualization, Anthropic Claude, Corner Visualization, Line Counter, Multi-Label Classification Model, Qwen2.5-VL, QR Code Detection, Keypoint Visualization, Mask Visualization, Image Threshold, Florence-2 Model, VLM as Detector, Data Aggregator, Polygon Zone Visualization, Google Gemini, Bounding Rectangle, Image Preprocessing, Twilio SMS Notification, Roboflow Custom Metadata, Reference Path Visualization, Blur Visualization, Detections Classes Replacement, Image Contours, Keypoint Detection Model, Ellipse Visualization, Byte Tracker, Crop Visualization, Stitch Images, Line Counter, Stitch OCR Detections, LMM, Webhook Sink, Email Notification, Size Measurement, Dimension Collapse, Velocity, Image Blur, Image Convert Grayscale, Stability AI Inpainting, Triangle Visualization, Classification Label Visualization, Keypoint Detection Model, Path Deviation, Time in Zone, VLM as Classifier, Detections Merge, Local File Sink, OpenAI, Roboflow Dataset Upload, Grid Visualization, Gaze Detection, LMM For Classification, Llama 3.2 Vision, Instance Segmentation Model, Pixel Color Count, Label Visualization, YOLO-World Model, Environment Secrets Store, Moondream2, Dot Visualization, Byte Tracker, Overlap Filter, Detections Consensus, Template Matching, Single-Label Classification Model, Google Vision OCR, Dynamic Crop, Depth Estimation, SIFT Comparison, SIFT Comparison, Byte Tracker, Cosine Similarity, Camera Calibration, Detection Offset, Halo Visualization, Clip Comparison, Polygon Visualization, Instance Segmentation Model, SIFT, Dynamic Zone, CLIP Embedding Model, VLM as Detector, Pixelate Visualization, Dominant Color, Detections Stitch, Property Definition, OpenAI, CogVLM, Florence-2 Model, Image Slicer, Delta Filter, Perspective Correction, Cache Get, Multi-Label Classification Model, Stability AI Image Generation, Time in Zone, Model Monitoring Inference Aggregator, Distance Measurement, Trace Visualization, Single-Label Classification Model, Buffer, VLM as Classifier, Segment Anything 2 Model, Absolute Static Crop, Continue If, Circle Visualization, Slack Notification, Image Slicer
• outputs: None

Input and Output Bindings

The available connections depend on its binding kinds. Check what binding kinds Rate Limiter in version v1 has.

Bindings

• input

  • depends_on (*): Step immediately preceding this block..
  • next_steps (step): Steps to execute if allowed by the rate limit..
  • video_reference_image (image): Reference to a video frame to use for timestamp generation (if running faster than realtime on recorded video)..

• output

Example JSON definition of step Rate Limiter in version v1

{
    "name": "<your_step_name_here>",
    "type": "roboflow_core/rate_limiter@v1",
    "cooldown_seconds": 1.0,
    "depends_on": "$steps.model",
    "next_steps": [
        "$steps.upload"
    ],
    "video_reference_image": "$inputs.image"
}