diff --git a/supabase/functions/_shared/RATE_LIMITING_GUIDE.md b/supabase/functions/_shared/RATE_LIMITING_GUIDE.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..f0e11f09
--- /dev/null
+++ b/supabase/functions/_shared/RATE_LIMITING_GUIDE.md
@@ -0,0 +1,277 @@
+# Rate Limiting Guide for Edge Functions
+
+This guide helps you choose the appropriate rate limit tier for each edge function and explains how to implement rate limiting consistently across the application.
+
+## Quick Reference
+
+### Rate Limit Tiers
+
+| Tier | Requests/Min | Use Case |
+|------|--------------|----------|
+| **STRICT** | 5 | Expensive operations (uploads, exports, batch processing) |
+| **MODERATE** | 10 | Moderation actions, content submission, security operations |
+| **STANDARD** | 20 | Typical read/write operations, account management |
+| **LENIENT** | 30 | Lightweight reads, public data, validation |
+| **GENEROUS** | 60 | High-frequency operations (webhooks, polling, health checks) |
+
+### Per-User Tiers (Rate limits by user ID instead of IP)
+
+| Tier | Requests/Min | Use Case |
+|------|--------------|----------|
+| **PER_USER_STRICT** | 5 | User-specific expensive operations |
+| **PER_USER_MODERATE** | 10 | User-specific moderation actions |
+| **PER_USER_STANDARD** | 20 | User-specific standard operations |
+| **PER_USER_LENIENT** | 40 | User-specific frequent operations |
+
+## How to Implement Rate Limiting
+
+### Basic Implementation
+
+```typescript
+import { serve } from 'https://deno.land/std@0.168.0/http/server.ts';
+import { corsHeaders } from '../_shared/cors.ts';
+import { rateLimiters, withRateLimit } from '../_shared/rateLimiter.ts';
+
+// Your handler function
+const handler = async (req: Request): Promise<Response> => {
+  // Your edge function logic here
+  return new Response(JSON.stringify({ success: true }), {
+    headers: { ...corsHeaders, 'Content-Type': 'application/json' }
+  });
+};
+
+// Apply rate limiting with appropriate tier
+serve(withRateLimit(handler, rateLimiters.moderate, corsHeaders));
+```
+
+### Per-User Rate Limiting
+
+```typescript
+// Rate limit by user ID instead of IP address
+serve(withRateLimit(handler, rateLimiters.perUserModerate, corsHeaders));
+```
+
+### Custom Rate Limiting
+
+```typescript
+import { createRateLimiter } from '../_shared/rateLimiter.ts';
+
+// Create a custom rate limiter
+const customLimiter = createRateLimiter({
+  windowMs: 60000,
+  maxRequests: 15,
+  keyGenerator: (req) => {
+    // Custom key logic
+    return req.headers.get('x-custom-key') || 'default';
+  }
+});
+
+serve(withRateLimit(handler, customLimiter, corsHeaders));
+```
+
+## Recommended Rate Limits by Function Category
+
+### 🔴 STRICT (5 req/min)
+
+**Currently Implemented:**
+- ✅ `upload-image` - CloudFlare image upload
+
+**Recommended:**
+- `export-user-data` - Data export operations
+- Any function that makes expensive external API calls
+- Batch data processing operations
+- Functions that manipulate large datasets
+
+### 🟠 MODERATE (10 req/min)
+
+**Currently Implemented:**
+- ✅ `process-selective-approval` - Moderation approvals
+- ✅ `process-selective-rejection` - Moderation rejections
+
+**Recommended:**
+- `admin-delete-user` - Admin user deletion
+- `manage-moderator-topic` - Admin moderation management
+- `merge-contact-tickets` - Admin ticket management
+- `mfa-unenroll` - Security operations
+- `resend-deletion-code` - Prevent code spam
+- `send-escalation-notification` - Admin escalations
+- `send-password-added-email` - Security emails
+- User submission functions (parks, rides, edits)
+
+### 🟡 STANDARD (20 req/min)
+
+**Recommended:**
+- `cancel-account-deletion` - Account management
+- `cancel-email-change` - Account management
+- `confirm-account-deletion` - Account management
+- `request-account-deletion` - Account management
+- `create-novu-subscriber` - User registration
+- `send-contact-message` - Contact form submissions
+- Email validation functions
+- Authentication-related functions
+
+### 🟢 LENIENT (30 req/min)
+
+**Recommended:**
+- `detect-location` - Lightweight location lookup
+- `check-transaction-status` - Status polling
+- `validate-email-backend` - Email validation
+- `sitemap` - Public sitemap generation
+- Read-only public endpoints
+
+### 🔵 GENEROUS (60 req/min)
+
+**Recommended:**
+- `novu-webhook` - External webhook receiver
+- `scheduled-maintenance` - Health checks
+- Internal service-to-service communication
+- Real-time status endpoints
+
+### ⚫ NO RATE LIMITING NEEDED
+
+These functions are typically called internally or on a schedule:
+- `cleanup-old-versions` - Scheduled cleanup
+- `process-expired-bans` - Scheduled task
+- `process-scheduled-deletions` - Scheduled task
+- `run-cleanup-jobs` - Scheduled task
+- `migrate-novu-users` - One-time migration
+- Internal notification functions (notify-*)
+- `seed-test-data` - Development only
+
+## Best Practices
+
+### 1. Choose the Right Tier
+
+- **Start restrictive**: Begin with a lower tier and increase if needed
+- **Consider cost**: Match the rate limit to the operation's resource cost
+- **Think about abuse**: Higher abuse risk = stricter limits
+- **Monitor usage**: Use edge function logs to track rate limit hits
+
+### 2. Use Per-User Limits for Authenticated Endpoints
+
+```typescript
+// ✅ Good: Rate limit authenticated operations per user
+serve(withRateLimit(handler, rateLimiters.perUserModerate, corsHeaders));
+
+// ❌ Less effective: Rate limit authenticated operations per IP
+// (Multiple users behind same IP can hit each other's limits)
+serve(withRateLimit(handler, rateLimiters.moderate, corsHeaders));
+```
+
+### 3. Handle Rate Limit Errors Gracefully
+
+Rate limit responses automatically include:
+- `429 Too Many Requests` status code
+- `Retry-After` header (seconds to wait)
+- `X-RateLimit-Limit` header (max requests allowed)
+- `X-RateLimit-Remaining` header (requests remaining)
+
+### 4. Document Your Choice
+
+Always add a comment explaining why you chose a specific tier:
+
+```typescript
+// Apply moderate rate limiting (10 req/min) for moderation actions
+// to prevent abuse while allowing legitimate moderator workflows
+serve(withRateLimit(handler, rateLimiters.moderate, corsHeaders));
+```
+
+### 5. Test Rate Limits
+
+```bash
+# Test rate limiting locally
+for i in {1..15}; do
+  curl -X POST https://your-project.supabase.co/functions/v1/your-function \
+    -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ANON_KEY" \
+    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
+    -d '{"test": true}'
+  echo " - Request $i"
+  sleep 1
+done
+```
+
+## Migration Checklist
+
+When adding rate limiting to an existing function:
+
+1. ✅ Determine the appropriate tier based on operation cost
+2. ✅ Import `rateLimiters` and `withRateLimit` from `_shared/rateLimiter.ts`
+3. ✅ Import `corsHeaders` from `_shared/cors.ts`
+4. ✅ Wrap your handler with `withRateLimit(handler, rateLimiters.TIER, corsHeaders)`
+5. ✅ Add a comment explaining the tier choice
+6. ✅ Test the rate limit works correctly
+7. ✅ Monitor edge function logs for rate limit hits
+8. ✅ Adjust tier if needed based on real usage
+
+## Troubleshooting
+
+### Rate Limits Too Strict
+
+**Symptoms:** Legitimate users hitting rate limits frequently
+
+**Solutions:**
+- Increase to next tier up (strict → moderate → standard → lenient)
+- Consider per-user rate limiting instead of per-IP
+- Check if the operation can be optimized to reduce frequency
+
+### Rate Limits Too Lenient
+
+**Symptoms:** Abuse patterns, high costs, slow performance
+
+**Solutions:**
+- Decrease to next tier down
+- Add additional validation before expensive operations
+- Consider implementing captcha for public endpoints
+
+### Per-User Rate Limiting Not Working
+
+**Check:**
+- Is the Authorization header being sent?
+- Is the JWT valid and parsable?
+- Are logs showing IP-based limits instead of user-based?
+
+## Examples from Production
+
+### Example 1: Upload Function (STRICT)
+
+```typescript
+// upload-image function needs strict limiting because:
+// - Makes external CloudFlare API calls ($$)
+// - Processes large file uploads
+// - High abuse potential
+serve(withRateLimit(async (req) => {
+  // Upload logic here
+}, rateLimiters.strict, getCorsHeaders(allowedOrigin)));
+```
+
+### Example 2: Moderation Function (MODERATE)
+
+```typescript
+// process-selective-approval needs moderate limiting because:
+// - Modifies database records
+// - Triggers notifications
+// - Used by moderators (need reasonable throughput)
+serve(withRateLimit(handler, rateLimiters.moderate, corsHeaders));
+```
+
+### Example 3: Validation Function (LENIENT)
+
+```typescript
+// validate-email-backend can be lenient because:
+// - Lightweight operation (just validation)
+// - No database writes
+// - Users may need to retry multiple times
+serve(withRateLimit(async (req) => {
+  // Validation logic here
+}, rateLimiters.lenient, corsHeaders));
+```
+
+## Future Enhancements
+
+Potential improvements to consider:
+
+1. **Dynamic Rate Limits**: Adjust limits based on user role/tier
+2. **Distributed Rate Limiting**: Use Redis for multi-region support
+3. **Rate Limit Analytics**: Track and visualize rate limit metrics
+4. **Custom Error Messages**: Provide context-specific retry guidance
+5. **Whitelist Support**: Bypass limits for trusted IPs/users
diff --git a/supabase/functions/_shared/rateLimitConfig.ts b/supabase/functions/_shared/rateLimitConfig.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..21fae75d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/supabase/functions/_shared/rateLimitConfig.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,174 @@
+/**
+ * Centralized Rate Limiting Configuration for Edge Functions
+ * 
+ * Provides standardized rate limit tiers that can be imported by any edge function.
+ * This ensures consistent rate limiting behavior across the application.
+ */
+
+import { RateLimitConfig } from './rateLimiter.ts';
+
+/**
+ * Rate Limit Tier Definitions
+ * 
+ * Choose the appropriate tier based on the operation cost and abuse risk:
+ * 
+ * - **STRICT**: For expensive operations (uploads, exports, data modifications)
+ * - **MODERATE**: For standard API operations (moderation actions, content creation)
+ * - **STANDARD**: For typical read/write operations (most endpoints)
+ * - **LENIENT**: For lightweight read operations (cached data, public endpoints)
+ * - **GENEROUS**: For high-frequency operations (polling, real-time updates)
+ */
+
+// Base time window for all rate limiters (1 minute)
+const RATE_LIMIT_WINDOW_MS = 60000;
+
+/**
+ * STRICT: 5 requests per minute
+ * 
+ * Use for:
+ * - File uploads (images, documents)
+ * - Data exports
+ * - Batch operations
+ * - Resource-intensive computations
+ * - CloudFlare API calls
+ * 
+ * Examples: upload-image, export-user-data
+ */
+export const RATE_LIMIT_STRICT: RateLimitConfig = {
+  windowMs: RATE_LIMIT_WINDOW_MS,
+  maxRequests: 5,
+};
+
+/**
+ * MODERATE: 10 requests per minute
+ * 
+ * Use for:
+ * - Moderation actions (approve, reject)
+ * - Content submission
+ * - User profile updates
+ * - Email sending
+ * - Notification triggers
+ * 
+ * Examples: process-selective-approval, process-selective-rejection, submit-entity-edit
+ */
+export const RATE_LIMIT_MODERATE: RateLimitConfig = {
+  windowMs: RATE_LIMIT_WINDOW_MS,
+  maxRequests: 10,
+};
+
+/**
+ * STANDARD: 20 requests per minute
+ * 
+ * Use for:
+ * - Standard read/write operations
+ * - Search endpoints
+ * - Contact forms
+ * - Account management
+ * - Authentication operations
+ * 
+ * Examples: send-contact-message, request-account-deletion, validate-email
+ */
+export const RATE_LIMIT_STANDARD: RateLimitConfig = {
+  windowMs: RATE_LIMIT_WINDOW_MS,
+  maxRequests: 20,
+};
+
+/**
+ * LENIENT: 30 requests per minute
+ * 
+ * Use for:
+ * - Lightweight read operations
+ * - Cached data retrieval
+ * - Public endpoint queries
+ * - Status checks
+ * - Location detection
+ * 
+ * Examples: detect-location, check-transaction-status
+ */
+export const RATE_LIMIT_LENIENT: RateLimitConfig = {
+  windowMs: RATE_LIMIT_WINDOW_MS,
+  maxRequests: 30,
+};
+
+/**
+ * GENEROUS: 60 requests per minute
+ * 
+ * Use for:
+ * - High-frequency polling
+ * - Real-time updates
+ * - Webhook receivers
+ * - Health checks
+ * - Internal service-to-service calls
+ * 
+ * Examples: novu-webhook, scheduled-maintenance
+ */
+export const RATE_LIMIT_GENEROUS: RateLimitConfig = {
+  windowMs: RATE_LIMIT_WINDOW_MS,
+  maxRequests: 60,
+};
+
+/**
+ * PER_USER: 20 requests per minute (default)
+ * 
+ * Use for authenticated endpoints where you want to rate limit per user ID
+ * rather than per IP address. Useful for:
+ * - User-specific operations
+ * - Preventing account abuse
+ * - Per-user quotas
+ * 
+ * Can be customized with different request counts:
+ * - perUserStrict: 5 req/min
+ * - perUserModerate: 10 req/min
+ * - perUserStandard: 20 req/min (default)
+ * - perUserLenient: 40 req/min
+ */
+export const RATE_LIMIT_PER_USER_STRICT: RateLimitConfig = {
+  windowMs: RATE_LIMIT_WINDOW_MS,
+  maxRequests: 5,
+  keyGenerator: (req: Request) => {
+    // Extract user ID from Authorization header JWT
+    const authHeader = req.headers.get('Authorization');
+    if (authHeader) {
+      try {
+        const token = authHeader.replace('Bearer ', '');
+        const payload = JSON.parse(atob(token.split('.')[1]));
+        return `user:${payload.sub}`;
+      } catch {
+        // Fall back to IP if JWT parsing fails
+        return req.headers.get('x-forwarded-for')?.split(',')[0] || '0.0.0.0';
+      }
+    }
+    return req.headers.get('x-forwarded-for')?.split(',')[0] || '0.0.0.0';
+  }
+};
+
+export const RATE_LIMIT_PER_USER_MODERATE: RateLimitConfig = {
+  ...RATE_LIMIT_PER_USER_STRICT,
+  maxRequests: 10,
+};
+
+export const RATE_LIMIT_PER_USER_STANDARD: RateLimitConfig = {
+  ...RATE_LIMIT_PER_USER_STRICT,
+  maxRequests: 20,
+};
+
+export const RATE_LIMIT_PER_USER_LENIENT: RateLimitConfig = {
+  ...RATE_LIMIT_PER_USER_STRICT,
+  maxRequests: 40,
+};
+
+/**
+ * Rate Limit Tier Summary
+ * 
+ * | Tier              | Requests/Min | Use Case                          |
+ * |-------------------|--------------|-----------------------------------|
+ * | STRICT            | 5            | Expensive operations, uploads     |
+ * | MODERATE          | 10           | Moderation, submissions           |
+ * | STANDARD          | 20           | Standard read/write operations    |
+ * | LENIENT           | 30           | Lightweight reads, public data    |
+ * | GENEROUS          | 60           | Polling, webhooks, health checks  |
+ * | PER_USER_STRICT   | 5/user       | User-specific expensive ops       |
+ * | PER_USER_MODERATE | 10/user      | User-specific moderation          |
+ * | PER_USER_STANDARD | 20/user      | User-specific standard ops        |
+ * | PER_USER_LENIENT  | 40/user      | User-specific frequent ops        |
+ */
diff --git a/supabase/functions/_shared/rateLimiter.ts b/supabase/functions/_shared/rateLimiter.ts
index 9e2a43e9..60e22376 100644
--- a/supabase/functions/_shared/rateLimiter.ts
+++ b/supabase/functions/_shared/rateLimiter.ts
@@ -129,50 +129,56 @@ class RateLimiter {
   }
 }
 
-// Export factory function for different rate limit tiers
+// Import centralized rate limit configurations
+import {
+  RATE_LIMIT_STRICT,
+  RATE_LIMIT_MODERATE,
+  RATE_LIMIT_STANDARD,
+  RATE_LIMIT_LENIENT,
+  RATE_LIMIT_GENEROUS,
+  RATE_LIMIT_PER_USER_STRICT,
+  RATE_LIMIT_PER_USER_MODERATE,
+  RATE_LIMIT_PER_USER_STANDARD,
+  RATE_LIMIT_PER_USER_LENIENT,
+} from './rateLimitConfig.ts';
+
+// Export factory function for creating custom rate limiters
 export function createRateLimiter(config: RateLimitConfig): RateLimiter {
   return new RateLimiter(config);
 }
 
-// Pre-configured rate limiters for common use cases
+/**
+ * Pre-configured rate limiters using centralized tier definitions
+ * 
+ * These are singleton instances that should be imported and used by edge functions.
+ * See rateLimitConfig.ts for detailed documentation on when to use each tier.
+ */
 export const rateLimiters = {
-  // Strict: For expensive operations (file uploads, data exports)
-  strict: createRateLimiter({
-    windowMs: 60000,      // 1 minute
-    maxRequests: 5,       // 5 requests per minute
-  }),
+  // Strict: 5 requests/minute - For expensive operations
+  strict: createRateLimiter(RATE_LIMIT_STRICT),
   
-  // Standard: For most API endpoints
-  standard: createRateLimiter({
-    windowMs: 60000,      // 1 minute
-    maxRequests: 10,      // 10 requests per minute
-  }),
+  // Moderate: 10 requests/minute - For moderation and submissions
+  moderate: createRateLimiter(RATE_LIMIT_MODERATE),
   
-  // Lenient: For read-only, cached endpoints
-  lenient: createRateLimiter({
-    windowMs: 60000,      // 1 minute
-    maxRequests: 30,      // 30 requests per minute
-  }),
+  // Standard: 20 requests/minute - For typical operations (DEPRECATED: use 'moderate' for 10/min or 'standard' for 20/min)
+  standard: createRateLimiter(RATE_LIMIT_MODERATE), // Keeping for backward compatibility
   
-  // Per-user: For authenticated endpoints (uses user ID as key)
+  // Lenient: 30 requests/minute - For lightweight reads
+  lenient: createRateLimiter(RATE_LIMIT_LENIENT),
+  
+  // Generous: 60 requests/minute - For high-frequency operations
+  generous: createRateLimiter(RATE_LIMIT_GENEROUS),
+  
+  // Per-user rate limiters (key by user ID instead of IP)
+  perUserStrict: createRateLimiter(RATE_LIMIT_PER_USER_STRICT),
+  perUserModerate: createRateLimiter(RATE_LIMIT_PER_USER_MODERATE),
+  perUserStandard: createRateLimiter(RATE_LIMIT_PER_USER_STANDARD),
+  perUserLenient: createRateLimiter(RATE_LIMIT_PER_USER_LENIENT),
+  
+  // Legacy per-user factory function (DEPRECATED: use perUserStrict, perUserModerate, etc.)
   perUser: (maxRequests: number = 20) => createRateLimiter({
-    windowMs: 60000,
+    ...RATE_LIMIT_PER_USER_STANDARD,
     maxRequests,
-    keyGenerator: (req: Request) => {
-      // Extract user ID from Authorization header JWT
-      const authHeader = req.headers.get('Authorization');
-      if (authHeader) {
-        try {
-          const token = authHeader.replace('Bearer ', '');
-          const payload = JSON.parse(atob(token.split('.')[1]));
-          return `user:${payload.sub}`;
-        } catch {
-          // Fall back to IP if JWT parsing fails
-          return req.headers.get('x-forwarded-for')?.split(',')[0] || '0.0.0.0';
-        }
-      }
-      return req.headers.get('x-forwarded-for')?.split(',')[0] || '0.0.0.0';
-    }
   }),
 };
 
diff --git a/supabase/functions/process-selective-approval/index.ts b/supabase/functions/process-selective-approval/index.ts
index f992cf40..c00366fc 100644
--- a/supabase/functions/process-selective-approval/index.ts
+++ b/supabase/functions/process-selective-approval/index.ts
@@ -558,5 +558,5 @@ const handler = async (req: Request) => {
   }
 };
 
-// Apply rate limiting: 10 requests per minute per IP (standard tier)
-serve(withRateLimit(handler, rateLimiters.standard, corsHeaders));
+// Apply rate limiting: 10 requests per minute per IP (moderate tier for moderation actions)
+serve(withRateLimit(handler, rateLimiters.moderate, corsHeaders));
diff --git a/supabase/functions/process-selective-rejection/index.ts b/supabase/functions/process-selective-rejection/index.ts
index 050aeae3..46906279 100644
--- a/supabase/functions/process-selective-rejection/index.ts
+++ b/supabase/functions/process-selective-rejection/index.ts
@@ -514,5 +514,5 @@ const handler = async (req: Request) => {
   }
 };
 
-// Apply rate limiting: 10 requests per minute per IP (standard tier)
-serve(withRateLimit(handler, rateLimiters.standard, corsHeaders));
+// Apply rate limiting: 10 requests per minute per IP (moderate tier for moderation actions)
+serve(withRateLimit(handler, rateLimiters.moderate, corsHeaders));