How do I prevent "ThrottlingException" errors that show "Rate exceeded" when I use Parameter Store?

Short description

Parameter Store API calls can't exceed the maximum allowed API request rate for each AWS account and each AWS Region. The maximum allowed rate includes API calls from both the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) and the AWS Management Console.

If API requests exceed the maximum rate, then you might see an error message that's similar to one of the following examples:

• "An error occurred (ThrottlingException) when calling the GetParameters operation (reached max retries: 4): Rate exceeded"
• "An error occurred (ThrottlingException) when calling the GetParameter operation (reached max retries: 4): Rate exceeded"
• "An error occurred (ThrottlingException) when calling the GetParametersByPath operation (reached max retries: 4): Rate exceeded"
• "An error occurred (ThrottlingException) when calling the DescribeParameters operation (reached max retries: 2): Rate exceeded"

Resolution

Note: If you receive errors when you run AWS CLI commands, then see Troubleshooting errors for the AWS CLI. Also, make sure that you're using the most recent AWS CLI version.

Troubleshoot the errors

To prevent "ThrottlingException" error messages that include "Rate exceeded", take the following actions:

• Reduce the frequency of the API calls.
• Set up intervals of the API calls so that they don't all run at the same time.
• Use APIs that return more than one value. For example, GetParameters and GetParametersByPath can retrieve 10 parameters with one API call.
• Implement error retries and exponential backoff when you make API calls.
• If you use AWS Lambda to call APIs against Parameter Store, then cache your parameters.

Increase Parameter Store throughput

If you still receive "Rate exceeded" errors after you take the previous troubleshooting actions, then increase your Parameter Store throughput. For information about maximum throughput default and maximum quotas, see Service quotas for Parameter Store.

Important: When you increase throughput, you incur a charge on your account. For more information, see AWS Systems Manager pricing.

Related information

Exponential backoff and jitter

Troubleshooting Parameter Store