> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.conduktor.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Kafka rate limiting and traffic control

> Enforce Kafka rate limits, producer quotas, and topic rules with Conduktor Gateway. Protect cluster infrastructure from misbehaving clients without application changes.

Traffic Control Policies let you enforce limits and rules on Kafka operations to protect your infrastructure and ensure compliance.

<Info>
  **From our blog:** [No Kafka data platform without ownership](https://www.conduktor.io/blog/no-kafka-data-platform-without-ownership) Why federated ownership underpins governance and policy enforcement at scale.
</Info>

## What you can control

Traffic Control Policies work as <Tooltip tip="A Kafka proxy that deploys extensible plugins for encryption, filtering, and data processing.">Gateway</Tooltip> <Tooltip tip="Conduktor Interceptors are Gateway plugins that transform and manipulate data.">Interceptors</Tooltip> that validate and enforce rules on:

**Configuration policies**

* Broker and topic configuration changes
* Topic creation parameters (replication factor, partition count)
* Schema ID requirements

**Rate limiting policies**

* Producer throughput limits
* Consumer fetch rate limits
* Offset commit frequency
* Consumer group join frequency
* Connection attempt limits

**Access control policies**

* Read-only topics
* Required client IDs
* Consumer group restrictions
* Message header removal

## Benefits

* **Prevent misconfiguration**: stop teams from creating topics with dangerous settings
* **Protect cluster performance**: rate limit clients before they impact others
* **Enforce standards**: require schema IDs, client IDs, or other organizational policies
* **Gradual rollout**: apply policies per <Tooltip tip="A service account is a non-human identity used by Kafka clients to authenticate and perform actions on resources.">service account</Tooltip> or <Tooltip tip="A logical representation of a Kafka cluster in Gateway.">Virtual Cluster</Tooltip>

## Available policies

* [Alter broker config](/guide/use-cases/apply-traffic-control-policies#alter-broker-config)
* [Alter topic config](/guide/use-cases/apply-traffic-control-policies#alter-topic-config)
* [ClientId required](/guide/use-cases/apply-traffic-control-policies#clientid-required)
* [Consumer group policy](/guide/use-cases/apply-traffic-control-policies#consumer-group-policy)
* [Create topic policy](/guide/use-cases/apply-traffic-control-policies#create-topic-policy)
* [Fetch policy](/guide/use-cases/apply-traffic-control-policies#fetch-policy)
* [Limit commit offset](/guide/use-cases/apply-traffic-control-policies#limit-commit-offset-policy)
* [Limit connection attempts](/guide/use-cases/apply-traffic-control-policies#limit-connection-attempts-policy)
* [Limit join group](/guide/use-cases/apply-traffic-control-policies#limit-join-group-policy)
* [Limit producer rate](/guide/use-cases/apply-traffic-control-policies#producer-rate-limiting-policy)
* [Produce requests](/guide/use-cases/apply-traffic-control-policies#produce-policy)
* [Read-only topic](/guide/use-cases/apply-traffic-control-policies#read-only-topic-policy)
* [Remove message headers](/guide/use-cases/apply-traffic-control-policies#message-header-removal-policy)
* [Schema ID required](/guide/use-cases/apply-traffic-control-policies#topic-required-schema-id-policy)

## Related resources

* [Apply Traffic Control Policies](/guide/use-cases/apply-traffic-control-policies)
* [Interceptors concept](/guide/conduktor-concepts/interceptors)
* [Give us feedback/request a feature](https://conduktor.io/roadmap)