diff --git a/nova/conf/api.py b/nova/conf/api.py
index bf0fb1746751..6436f13832e4 100644
--- a/nova/conf/api.py
+++ b/nova/conf/api.py
@@ -17,28 +17,6 @@ from oslo_config import cfg
 
 
 auth_opts = [
-    cfg.BoolOpt("api_rate_limit",
-            default=False,
-            deprecated_for_removal=True,
-            deprecated_group="DEFAULT",
-            help="""
-*DEPRECATED*
-
-Determines whether rate limiting for the API is per-user. This option is only
-used by v2 API. Rate limiting is removed from v2.1 API.
-
-* Possible values:
-
-    True, False (default)
-
-* Services that use this:
-
-    ``nova-api``
-
-* Related options:
-
-    None
-"""),
     cfg.StrOpt("auth_strategy",
             default="keystone",
             choices=("keystone", "noauth2"),
diff --git a/releasenotes/notes/remove-api-rate-limit-option-91a17e057081381a.yaml b/releasenotes/notes/remove-api-rate-limit-option-91a17e057081381a.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..6b050d0a0a11
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releasenotes/notes/remove-api-rate-limit-option-91a17e057081381a.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+---
+other:
+  - The ``api_rate_limit`` configuration option has been removed. The option
+    was disabled by default back in the Havana release since it's effectively
+    broken for more than one API worker. It has been removed because the legacy
+    v2 API code that was using it has also been removed.