How to Limit Download Speed in aria2c on Ubuntu

This article provides a concise explanation of how to restrict download bandwidth when using the aria2c utility on Ubuntu. It focuses on the specific command-line option required to cap the transfer rate. Readers will learn the correct syntax and value formats to apply speed limits effectively during file downloads.

To limit the download speed in aria2c, you must use the --max-download-limit option followed by your desired value. This flag sets the maximum download speed per server connection. You can specify the speed in bytes, or use suffixes like K for kilobytes or M for megabytes.

The basic command structure is as follows:

aria2c --max-download-limit=VALUE URL

For example, to limit the download speed to 50 kilobytes per second, run:

aria2c --max-download-limit=50K http://example.com/file.zip

If you want to limit the speed to 1 megabyte per second, use:

aria2c --max-download-limit=1M http://example.com/file.zip

This setting applies to the total download speed across all active connections for that specific aria2c instance. Ensure you install aria2 on your Ubuntu system using sudo apt install aria2 before running these commands.