Connection throttled: Paper reconnect limit and how to turn it off

This page covers the message Connection throttled! Please wait before reconnecting. It applies to Paper, Spigot, Purpur and other Bukkit-based servers. Vanilla, Forge and Fabric servers do not have this feature. For other join errors, see Can’t connect errors.

What connection throttling is

Bukkit-based servers refuse a new login from the same IP address if that address logged in too recently. The wait is set by connection-throttle in bukkit.yml, in milliseconds. The default is 4000, which is 4 seconds. A player who leaves and rejoins faster than that gets kicked with “Connection throttled”.

It exists to slow down bots and reconnect spam. It is usually harmless, but it can get in the way.

When you may need to turn it off

• Several players share one IP address (a household, a school, a LAN party) and join at the same time.
• Your server sits behind a proxy such as BungeeCord or Velocity. The server sees every player as coming from the proxy’s address, so players get throttled against each other.
• You are testing or reconnecting quickly on purpose, for example while restarting plugins or debugging joins.
• Players get kicked with “Connection throttled” right after a crash or a network drop and cannot get back in.

How to turn it off

1. Open your server in the panel and go to Files. See Files.
2. Open bukkit.yml in the main folder.
3. Find the settings: section and change the line:

   settings:
     connection-throttle: -1

   -1 means no limit, so players can reconnect as often as they like. Any other number is the wait in milliseconds. 0 is not the same as -1, so use -1.
4. Save the file and Restart the server. The setting is read at startup, so a reload is not enough.

If connection-throttle is missing from the file, add it under settings: with the same indentation as the other lines (two spaces).

What to know before you do it

• With throttling off, nothing slows down someone who joins and leaves over and over. If you see bot spam in the Console after turning it off, set it back to 4000 or another value.
• If you use a proxy, the proxy has its own throttle. BungeeCord has connection_throttle in its config.yml. Velocity has login-ratelimit in velocity.toml. Change that one too if players are still throttled.
• To turn it back on, set the value to 4000 and restart.

Still stuck?

Open a ticket or ask on Discord. See Contact support. Include the exact message players see and your server software (Paper, Purpur and so on).