---
title: Velocity
description: Velocity is the rate of activity for a single user or IP over a short window. A spike well past normal human pace points to scraping or account sharing.
---

# Velocity

Velocity is how fast activity is piling up for one user or IP. People act at human pace: they read, pause, navigate, come back later. Automated traffic and heavily shared accounts don't, so a burst of activity well past what one person produces is a useful tell. The `has_high_velocity` [check](/docs/v3/concepts/checks) flips true when the rate for an account or address crosses what's normal for a single human.

## What it catches

- **[Scraping](/docs/v3/concepts/scraping)**: a script hitting an endpoint far faster than anyone could click is the textbook high-velocity case.
- **[Account sharing](/docs/v3/concepts/account-sharing)**: when many people use one login, the account's combined activity runs hotter than any individual would.

## Using it

`has_high_velocity` weights into both the [scraping](/docs/v3/concepts/scraping) and [account-sharing](/docs/v3/concepts/account-sharing) [risk](/docs/v3/concepts/risks) scores, and you can match it directly in a [policy](/docs/v3/concepts/policies). It pairs naturally with the [anonymizing network](/docs/v3/concepts/anonymizing-network) flags for scraping (fast traffic from a datacenter IP) and with [concurrency](/docs/v3/concepts/concurrency) for sharing (fast traffic from two places at once). On its own, treat it as a reason to add friction rather than to hard-block. A genuine power user can occasionally run hot.