diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index edf091da22..b83b88abe2 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -69,6 +69,7 @@
  * cqlsh: add custom prompt support (CASSANDRA-5539)
  * Reuse prepared statements in hot auth queries (CASSANDRA-5594)
  * cqlsh: add vertical output option (see EXPAND) (CASSANDRA-5597)
+ * Add a rate limit option to stress (CASSANDRA-5004)
 Merged from 1.1:
  * Remove buggy thrift max message length option (CASSANDRA-5529)
  * Fix NPE in Pig's widerow mode (CASSANDRA-5488)
diff --git a/tools/stress/src/org/apache/cassandra/stress/Session.java b/tools/stress/src/org/apache/cassandra/stress/Session.java
index 7fca986241..f19d61e4a9 100644
--- a/tools/stress/src/org/apache/cassandra/stress/Session.java
+++ b/tools/stress/src/org/apache/cassandra/stress/Session.java
@@ -23,10 +23,8 @@ import java.net.UnknownHostException;
 import java.nio.ByteBuffer;
 import java.util.*;
 import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicInteger;
-import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicLong;
 
 import com.yammer.metrics.Metrics;
-import com.yammer.metrics.core.Histogram;
 import org.apache.cassandra.cli.transport.FramedTransportFactory;
 import org.apache.cassandra.config.CFMetaData;
 import org.apache.cassandra.config.EncryptionOptions;
@@ -117,6 +115,7 @@ public class Session implements Serializable
         availableOptions.addOption("alg", SSL_ALGORITHM,         true, "SSL: algorithm (default: SunX509)");
         availableOptions.addOption("st", SSL_STORE_TYPE,         true, "SSL: type of store");
         availableOptions.addOption("ciphers", SSL_CIPHER_SUITES, true, "SSL: comma-separated list of encryption suites to use");
+        availableOptions.addOption("th",  "throttle",            true,   "Throttle the total number of operations per second to a maximum amount.");
     }
 
     private int numKeys          = 1000 * 1000;
@@ -143,6 +142,7 @@ public class Session implements Serializable
     private boolean trace         = false;
     private boolean captureStatistics = true;
     public boolean use_native_protocol = false;
+    private double maxOpsPerSecond = Double.MAX_VALUE;
 
     private final String outFileName;
 
@@ -285,6 +285,9 @@ public class Session implements Serializable
             if (cmd.hasOption("g"))
                 keysPerCall = Integer.parseInt(cmd.getOptionValue("g"));
 
+            if (cmd.hasOption("th"))
+                maxOpsPerSecond = Double.parseDouble(cmd.getOptionValue("th"));
+
             if (cmd.hasOption("e"))
                 consistencyLevel = ConsistencyLevel.valueOf(cmd.getOptionValue("e").toUpperCase());
 
@@ -515,6 +518,11 @@ public class Session implements Serializable
         return threads;
     }
 
+    public double getMaxOpsPerSecond()
+    {
+        return maxOpsPerSecond;
+    }
+
     public float getSkipKeys()
     {
         return skipKeys;
diff --git a/tools/stress/src/org/apache/cassandra/stress/StressAction.java b/tools/stress/src/org/apache/cassandra/stress/StressAction.java
index 13ac61148e..ea84647a77 100644
--- a/tools/stress/src/org/apache/cassandra/stress/StressAction.java
+++ b/tools/stress/src/org/apache/cassandra/stress/StressAction.java
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ import java.util.concurrent.SynchronousQueue;
 import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
 
 import com.google.common.util.concurrent.Uninterruptibles;
+import com.google.common.util.concurrent.RateLimiter;
 import com.yammer.metrics.stats.Snapshot;
 import org.apache.cassandra.stress.operations.*;
 import org.apache.cassandra.stress.util.CassandraClient;
@@ -69,13 +70,14 @@ public class StressAction extends Thread
 
         int itemsPerThread = client.getKeysPerThread();
         int modulo = client.getNumKeys() % threadCount;
+        RateLimiter rateLimiter = RateLimiter.create(client.getMaxOpsPerSecond());
 
         // creating required type of the threads for the test
         for (int i = 0; i < threadCount; i++) {
             if (i == threadCount - 1)
                 itemsPerThread += modulo; // last one is going to handle N + modulo items
 
-            consumers[i] = new Consumer(itemsPerThread);
+            consumers[i] = new Consumer(itemsPerThread, rateLimiter);
         }
 
         Producer producer = new Producer();
@@ -217,12 +219,14 @@ public class StressAction extends Thread
     private class Consumer extends Thread
     {
         private final int items;
+        private final RateLimiter rateLimiter;
         private volatile boolean stop = false;
         private volatile int returnCode = StressAction.SUCCESS;
 
-        public Consumer(int toConsume)
+        public Consumer(int toConsume, RateLimiter rateLimiter)
         {
             items = toConsume;
+            this.rateLimiter = rateLimiter;
         }
 
         public void run()
@@ -238,6 +242,7 @@ public class StressAction extends Thread
 
                     try
                     {
+                        rateLimiter.acquire();
                         operations.take().run(connection); // running job
                     }
                     catch (Exception e)
@@ -266,6 +271,7 @@ public class StressAction extends Thread
 
                     try
                     {
+                        rateLimiter.acquire();
                         operations.take().run(connection); // running job
                     }
                     catch (Exception e)