---
c: Copyright (C) Daniel Stenberg, <daniel@haxx.se>, et al.
SPDX-License-Identifier: curl
Long: limit-rate
Arg: <speed>
Help: Limit transfer speed to RATE
Category: connection
Added: 7.10
Multi: single
See-also:
  - rate
  - speed-limit
  - speed-time
Example:
  - --limit-rate 123.45K $URL
  - --limit-rate 1000 $URL
  - --limit-rate 10M $URL
  - --limit-rate 200K --max-time 60 $URL
---

# `--limit-rate`

Specify the maximum transfer rate you want curl to use - for both downloads
and uploads. This feature is useful if you have a limited pipe and you would
like your transfer not to use your entire bandwidth. To make it slower than it
otherwise would be.

The given speed is measured in bytes/second, unless a suffix is appended.
Appending 'k' or 'K' counts the number as kilobytes, 'm' or 'M' makes it
megabytes etc. The supported suffixes (k, M, G, T, P) are 1024-based. For
example 1k is 1024. Examples: 200K, 3m and 1G.

The rate limiting logic works on averaging the transfer speed to no more than
the set threshold over a period of multiple seconds.

If you also use the --speed-limit option, that option takes precedence and
might cripple the rate-limiting slightly, to help keep the speed-limit
logic working.

Starting in curl 8.19.0, the rate can be specified using a fraction as in
`2.5M` for two and a half megabytes per second. It only works with a period
(`.`) delimiter, independent of what your locale might prefer.