diff --git a/examples/example.borg b/examples/example.borg
index 51ff90e0e36265b9d37fb8b96b1864f9fc1b256d..1ea48abcf4e10c6703bb6d6f23d8a4b362c7d0b4 100644
--- a/examples/example.borg
+++ b/examples/example.borg
@@ -23,6 +23,12 @@
 ## Default:
 # testconnect = yes
 
+## default is not to limit bandwidth. 
+## set to a number in kiBytes/second to limit bandwidth usage. 
+##
+## Default:
+# bwlimit = 0
+
 ######################################################
 ## source section
 ## (where the files to be backed up are coming from)
diff --git a/handlers/borg.in b/handlers/borg.in
index 54574c418cf97949e822aa20011c88f23394695a..3a8c0481470214ea3f916de0533e4e00e6fec60a 100644
--- a/handlers/borg.in
+++ b/handlers/borg.in
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ export BORG_RELOCATED_REPO_ACCESS_IS_OK=yes
 
 getconf testconnect yes
 getconf nicelevel 0
+getconf bwlimit
 
 setsection source
 getconf prune yes
@@ -118,6 +119,10 @@ IFS=$SAVEIFS
 
 set +o noglob
 
+if [ ! -z $bwlimit ]; then
+   execstr="${execstr} --remote-ratelimit=${bwlimit}"
+fi
+
 # include client-part and server-part
 execstr="${execstr} ${excludes} $execstr_repository::$execstr_archive ${includes}"
 debug "$execstr"