Request: Can the /passwordless/start rate limit be increased for a Free tier tenant?

Hi - we’re running a membership site using Passwordless Email (OTP codes), and we’re consistently hitting the /u/login/passwordless-email-challenge and /passwordless/start rate limits during traffic spikes (especially when many members request login codes at once before events).

We’re on the Free tier, and understand the published guidance indicates a limit of ~50 requests/hour per IP. However, with legitimate users behind shared networks (mobile carriers, office networks, etc.), the limit is reached quickly and results in:

invalid_request: The rate limit for endpoint /u/login/passwordless-email-challenge was reached. Please retry after a few minutes.

We already have:

  • Email TTL increased to 15 minutes

  • Cooldowns and messaging to prevent repeated requests

  • Disabled database signups

  • Bot Detection enabled

  • DKIM/SPF/DMARC fully aligned

We’d like to know:

Is it possible to increase the rate limit for this endpoint on the Free tier, or is upgrading to a paid plan the only path?

If upgrading is required, which plan(s) allow higher passwordless OTP rate limits or relaxed throttling?

Any clarification or recommendations would be greatly appreciated — especially if there are best practices for scaling passwordless email flows during high-traffic windows.

Thank you!

Hi @RPMW360 and welcome to the Auth0 Community!

Please allow me some time to look into this matter, and I will get back to you with an answer as soon as possible.

Thank you!
Teodor.

1 Like