A dynamic rate limiting mechanism for wireless mesh networks. In particular implementations, a method comprising monitoring one or more clients associated with a wireless mesh network and the respective hop counts of the clients to a root mesh node of the wireless mesh network; determining, responsive to one or more events, a client data rate for one or more clients of the wireless mesh network based on the number of current clients and the respective hop counts of the current clients; and applying the client data rate to the wireless mesh network.