diff --git a/lmdeploy/cli/serve.py b/lmdeploy/cli/serve.py
index e83607584..9a3860b71 100644
--- a/lmdeploy/cli/serve.py
+++ b/lmdeploy/cli/serve.py
@@ -116,6 +116,14 @@ def add_parser_api_server():
                             default=['*'],
                             help='A list of allowed http headers for cors')
         parser.add_argument('--proxy-url', type=str, default=None, help='The proxy url for api server.')
+        parser.add_argument('--max-concurrent-requests',
+                            type=int,
+                            default=None,
+                            help='This refers to the number of concurrent requests that '
+                            'the server can handle. The server is designed to process the '
+                            'engine’s tasks once the maximum number of concurrent requests is '
+                            'reached, regardless of any additional requests sent by clients '
+                            'concurrently during that time. Default to None.')
         # common args
         ArgumentHelper.backend(parser)
         ArgumentHelper.log_level(parser)
@@ -314,7 +322,8 @@ def api_server(args):
                        ssl=args.ssl,
                        proxy_url=args.proxy_url,
                        max_log_len=args.max_log_len,
-                       disable_fastapi_docs=args.disable_fastapi_docs)
+                       disable_fastapi_docs=args.disable_fastapi_docs,
+                       max_concurrent_requests=args.max_concurrent_requests)
 
     @staticmethod
     def api_client(args):
diff --git a/lmdeploy/serve/openai/api_server.py b/lmdeploy/serve/openai/api_server.py
index b61772f40..2fb17e4c6 100644
--- a/lmdeploy/serve/openai/api_server.py
+++ b/lmdeploy/serve/openai/api_server.py
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
 from fastapi.middleware.cors import CORSMiddleware
 from fastapi.responses import JSONResponse, Response, StreamingResponse
 from fastapi.security.http import HTTPAuthorizationCredentials, HTTPBearer
+from starlette.middleware.base import BaseHTTPMiddleware
 
 from lmdeploy.archs import get_task
 from lmdeploy.messages import GenerationConfig, LogitsProcessor, PytorchEngineConfig, TurbomindEngineConfig
@@ -908,6 +909,18 @@ async def startup_event():
         print(f'Service registration failed: {e}')
 
 
+class ConcurrencyLimitMiddleware(BaseHTTPMiddleware):
+
+    def __init__(self, app: FastAPI, max_concurrent_requests: int):
+        super().__init__(app)
+        self.semaphore = asyncio.Semaphore(max_concurrent_requests)
+
+    async def dispatch(self, request: Request, call_next):
+        async with self.semaphore:
+            response = await call_next(request)
+            return response
+
+
 def serve(model_path: str,
           model_name: Optional[str] = None,
           backend: Literal['turbomind', 'pytorch'] = 'turbomind',
@@ -925,6 +938,7 @@ def serve(model_path: str,
           proxy_url: Optional[str] = None,
           max_log_len: int = None,
           disable_fastapi_docs: bool = False,
+          max_concurrent_requests: Optional[int] = None,
           **kwargs):
     """An example to perform model inference through the command line
     interface.
@@ -969,6 +983,11 @@ def serve(model_path: str,
         proxy_url (str): The proxy url to register the api_server.
         max_log_len (int): Max number of prompt characters or prompt tokens
             being printed in log. Default: Unlimited
+        max_concurrent_requests: This refers to the number of concurrent
+            requests that the server can handle. The server is designed to
+            process the engine’s tasks once the maximum number of concurrent
+            requests is reached, regardless of any additional requests sent by
+            clients concurrently during that time. Default to None.
     """
     if os.getenv('TM_LOG_LEVEL') is None:
         os.environ['TM_LOG_LEVEL'] = log_level
@@ -993,6 +1012,10 @@ def serve(model_path: str,
             allow_methods=allow_methods,
             allow_headers=allow_headers,
         )
+    # Set the maximum number of concurrent requests
+    if max_concurrent_requests is not None:
+        app.add_middleware(ConcurrencyLimitMiddleware, max_concurrent_requests=max_concurrent_requests)
+
     if api_keys is not None:
         if isinstance(api_keys, str):
             api_keys = api_keys.split(',')