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API Keys And Usage Plans In AWS API Gateway

This article explains the API Keys and Usage plans in AWS API Gateway.

What Is An API Key?

An API key is a unique string provided to a client to identify and authenticate their requests.

How To Create API Keys?

To create an API key, go to the API gateway and click on the "API keys" menu.

Picture showing the API Keys menu option in API gateway

The following screen will appear.

Picture showing the Create API Key for creating the new API Key

Click on the "Create API key" button. A window will appear where you can create the API key.

Picture showing the Create API key screen for creating the new API key

Enter the "Name", "Description", and "API key". Click on the "Save" button. The API key is created.

Picture showing the API key created in AWS console

What Is The Usage Plan?

The Usage Plan feature for API Gateway allows you to manage and control the access to your APIs by defining usage limits and setting throttling, and quota limits for API clients.

Create A Usage Plan

To create an API key, go to the API gateway and click on the "Usage plans" menu.

Picture showing the Usage plan menu in API gateway

The following screen will appear on the right-hand side.

Picture showing the Create usage plan button for creating the new usage plan

Click on the "Create usage plan" button. A screen will appear to create the usage plan.

Picture showing the Create usage plan screen for creating the new usage plan

Enter the details and click on the "Create usage plan" button. The usage plan is created.

Picture showing the usage plan created in AWS console

Terms Used In Usage Plan

Terms	Description
Throttle	Throttling controls the rate at which users can call your API, helping to manage traffic and protect backend services
Rate	Specifies the number of requests per second (RPS) an API can handle. Once the threshold is reached, further requests are delayed or rejected until the rate drops below the limit
Burst	Specifies the maximum number of requests that can be made quickly (like within a few seconds) without throttling, even if it temporarily exceeds the normal request rate limit
Quota	Specifies the maximum number of requests a user can take per month. Once the limit is reached, the user cannot make any additional request.

Associate API Key With Usage Plan

To associate an API key with the usage plan, go to the detail screen of the usage plan. In the "Associated API key" tab, click the "Add API key" button.

Picture showing the Associate API Key tab for associating key and usage plan

A window appears to select the API key.

Picture showing a screen to add the key to the usage plan

Click the "Add API key" button. The key is added to the usage plan.

Picture showing the API key is added to usage plan

How To Configure API Key?

To configure the API key, select any method and click the "Method request".

Picture showing the method request in API gateway

In the "Method request" section, enable "API key required" and click the "Save" button.

Picture showing the Edit method request screen

To test, open the postman tool and add the following in the "Headers" tab.

x-api-key: [Your_API_Key_Here]

Can We Have Two API Keys In Single Usage Plan?

Yes, in AWS API Gateway, you can associate multiple API keys with a single usage plan. This is useful when you want to apply the same quota and throttling limits to multiple clients or applications.

Can We Use Same API Key With Multiple Usage Plan?

No.

Posted By -	Karan Gupta

Posted On -	Saturday, November 16, 2024

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