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API Gateway:Capacity overview

Last Updated:Mar 24, 2026

This topic provides capacity thresholds and queries per second (QPS) performance references for different specifications of cloud-native API Gateway instances to help you select the most suitable specifications for your needs.

Capacity thresholds

The following are the capacity thresholds for different gateway specifications. When gateway capacity metrics are below the alert level, you receive full Service-Level Agreement (SLA) protection. For core services, keep the gateway capacity metrics below the safe level for better stability.

  • Safe level: The gateway system maintains high throughput and low-latency performance, even if burst traffic doubles.

  • Alert level: If usage exceeds this level, gateway latency may increase and stability risks can arise during traffic bursts.

  • The apigw.dev.x1 specification is deployed on a single node and does not provide SLA protection. Use this specification for testing scenarios only. For online services, use gateway specifications that are deployed on multiple nodes.

  • SLA protection does not cover request anomalies that are caused by exceeding the gateway's CPU or memory alert levels. The gateway provides alerts for these levels. You must monitor the gateway's load level and alerts in a timely manner.

Gateway specifications

Client connections

HTTPS new connections per second

CPU usage

Memory usage

Safe level

Alert level

Safe level

Alert level

Safe level

Alert level

Safe level

Alert level

apigw.dev.x1

12000

24000

400

800

30%

60%

75%

75%

apigw.small.x1

24000

48000

800

1600

30%

60%

75%

75%

apigw.small.x2

48000

96000

1600

3200

30%

60%

75%

75%

apigw.small.x4

96000

192000

3200

6400

30%

60%

75%

75%

apigw.medium.x1

192000

384000

6400

12800

30%

60%

75%

75%

apigw.medium.x2

384000

768000

12800

25600

30%

60%

75%

75%

apigw.medium.x3

576000

1152000

19200

38400

30%

60%

75%

75%

apigw.large.x1

768000

1536000

25600

51200

30%

60%

75%

75%

apigw.large.x2

1536000

3072000

51200

102400

30%

60%

75%

75%

apigw.large.x3

2304000

4608000

76800

153600

30%

60%

75%

75%

apigw.large.x4

3072000

6144000

102400

204800

30%

60%

75%

75%

QPS performance reference

Gateway QPS throughput is affected by various factors, such as the response size and whether HTTPS or gzip is enabled. The following table provides reference values for the pessimistic QPS (worst-case scenario) when the gateway CPU usage is at 30%.

Note

New HTTPS connections consume significant CPU resources. For business scenarios that involve many instantaneous HTTPS concurrent connections, refer to the data for HTTPS short-lived connections in the following table to evaluate gateway capacity.

Gateway specifications

apigw.dev.x1

apigw.small.x1

apigw.small.x2

apigw.small.x4

apigw.medium.x1

apigw.medium.x2

apigw.medium.x3

apigw.large.x1

apigw.large.x2

apigw.large.x3

apigw.large.x4

Connection type

Response size (KBytes)

Is HTTPS used?

Use gzip compression?

QPS reference at safe CPU level (30%)

Short-lived connection

1

No

No

1700

3400

6800

13600

28000

56000

84000

112000

224000

336000

448000

Yes

No

500

1000

2000

4000

8700

17400

26100

34800

69600

104400

139200

Persistent connection

1

No

No

2200

4400

8800

17600

35000

70000

105000

140000

280000

420000

560000

Yes

No

2000

4000

8000

16000

32000

64000

96000

128000

256000

384000

512000

Yes

Yes

1700

3400

6800

13600

28000

56000

84000

112000

224000

336000

448000

10

No

No

1800

3600

7200

14400

30000

60000

90000

120000

240000

360000

480000

Yes

No

1700

3400

6800

13600

28000

56000

84000

112000

224000

336000

448000

Yes

Yes

1000

2000

4000

8000

16000

32000

48000

64000

128000

192000

256000

Quota limits

Global quotas

Global quotas are independent of gateway instance specifications. To increase a quota, submit a ticket.

Quota item

Quota

Instances per region

100

API operations per API

2000

Instance specification quotas

Instance specification quotas depend on the gateway instance specifications. If a quota does not meet your needs after you upgrade to a higher specification, you can submit a ticket to request an increase.

Dev

Small

Medium

Large

Published domain names

100

200

500

1000

Associated services

200

800

2000

4000

Service nodes

400

1600

4000

8000

Total online routes (including HTTP API routes, REST API operations, Ingress routes)

2500

5000

7500

10000

K8s service sources

3

3

5

5

Installed plugins

5

10

20

30

Uploaded custom plugins

10

20

50

80

Consumer authorization count

500

2000

6000

10000