---
title: Rate limiting
description: Rate limiting for the Elastic Cloud Managed OTLP Endpoint.
url: https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/reference/opentelemetry/motlp/rate-limiting
products:
  - Elastic Cloud Serverless
  - Elastic Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector
  - Elastic Observability
applies_to:
  - Serverless Observability projects: Generally available
  - Serverless Security projects: Generally available
  - Elastic Cloud Hosted: Generally available
---

# Rate limiting
Rate limiting occurs when the Elastic Cloud Managed OTLP Endpoint receives data faster than it can process and index into Elasticsearch. The endpoint responds with HTTP `429` errors until the data volume is reduced.

## How rate limiting works

Rate limiting behavior differs by deployment type:
- **Elastic Cloud Hosted**: Rate limits depend on your Elasticsearch cluster capacity. If your cluster can't keep up with incoming data, the endpoint starts rejecting requests with `429` errors.
- **Elastic Cloud Serverless**: Elastic manages scaling automatically. Rate limiting is rare and typically indicates a temporary event to protect our system.


## Identifying rate limiting

When rate limiting occurs, the Elastic Cloud Managed OTLP Endpoint responds with an HTTP `429` Too Many Requests status code. A log message similar to this appears in the OpenTelemetry Collector's output:
```
"error": "rpc error: code = ResourceExhausted desc = request exceeded available capacity"
```

For troubleshooting steps, refer to [Error: too many requests](/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/reference/opentelemetry/motlp/troubleshooting#error-too-many-requests).

## Resolving rate limiting


### Elastic Cloud Hosted deployments

For Elastic Cloud Hosted deployments, `429` errors typically indicate that your Elasticsearch cluster is undersized for the current data volume. If [AutoOps](/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/reference/opentelemetry/motlp/troubleshooting#use-autoops-to-diagnose-issues) is available in your region, use it to check CPU utilization, index queue depth, and node load to confirm whether your cluster is under-resourced. If AutoOps is not available in your region, [contact Elastic Support](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/troubleshoot/ingest/opentelemetry/contact-support).
If metrics confirm the cluster needs more capacity, scale your deployment:
- [Scaling considerations](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/deploy-manage/production-guidance/scaling-considerations)
- [Resize deployment](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/deploy-manage/deploy/cloud-enterprise/resize-deployment)
- [Autoscaling in ECE and ECH](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/deploy-manage/autoscaling/autoscaling-in-ece-and-ech)

Once your Elasticsearch capacity is scaled up or is able to accept the incoming data volume, requests to Elastic Cloud Managed OTLP Endpoint will be accepted again.

### Elastic Cloud Serverless deployments

For Elastic Cloud Serverless projects, Elastic manages backend scaling automatically. If you experience persistent `429` errors, [contact Elastic Support](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/troubleshoot/ingest/opentelemetry/contact-support).