diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 070a1566bdf..92bef90e08a 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](http://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/)
 and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.html).
 
 ## [Unreleased]
+- **CUMULUS-304: "Add AWS API throttling to pdr-status-check task"** Added concurrency limit on SFN API calls.  The default concurrency is 10 and is configurable through Lambda environment variable CONCURRENCY.
 
 ## [v1.2.0] - 2018-03-20
 
diff --git a/cumulus/tasks/pdr-status-check/README.md b/cumulus/tasks/pdr-status-check/README.md
index 3f31041f437..273d629d841 100644
--- a/cumulus/tasks/pdr-status-check/README.md
+++ b/cumulus/tasks/pdr-status-check/README.md
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 [![CircleCI](https://circleci.com/gh/cumulus-nasa/cumulus.svg?style=svg)](https://circleci.com/gh/cumulus-nasa/cumulus)
 
 Lambda function handler for checking the status of a workflow (step function) execution. Expects a payload object which includes the name of a PDR.
+The concurrency of SFN API calls is set to 10 by default, and it's configurable by setting the Lambda environment variable CONCURRENCY.
 
 ## What is Cumulus?
 
diff --git a/cumulus/tasks/pdr-status-check/index.js b/cumulus/tasks/pdr-status-check/index.js
index 74847119843..d9eea082247 100644
--- a/cumulus/tasks/pdr-status-check/index.js
+++ b/cumulus/tasks/pdr-status-check/index.js
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ const aws = require('@cumulus/common/aws');
 const { IncompleteError } = require('@cumulus/common/errors');
 const log = require('@cumulus/common/log');
 const { justLocalRun } = require('@cumulus/common/local-helpers');
+const pLimit = require('p-limit');
 
 // The default number of times to re-check for completion
 const defaultRetryLimit = 30;
@@ -130,6 +131,21 @@ function buildOutput(event, groupedExecutions) {
   return output;
 }
 
+/**
+ * check the status of a step funciton execution
+ *
+ * @param {string} executionArn - step function execution arn
+ * @returns {Promise.<Object>} - an object describing the status of the exection
+ */
+function describeExecutionStatus(executionArn) {
+  return aws.sfn().describeExecution({ executionArn }).promise()
+    .catch((e) => {
+      if (e.code === 'ExecutionDoesNotExist') {
+        return { executionArn: executionArn, status: 'RUNNING' };
+      }
+      throw e;
+    });
+}
 /**
  * Checks a list of Step Function Executions to see if they are all in
  * terminal states.
@@ -141,34 +157,28 @@ function buildOutput(event, groupedExecutions) {
  */
 async function checkPdrStatuses(event) {
   const runningExecutionArns = event.input.running || [];
+  const concurrencyLimit = process.env.CONCURRENCY || 10;
+  const limit = pLimit(concurrencyLimit);
 
-  const executions = [];
-  for (const executionArn of runningExecutionArns) {
-    try {
-      const execution = await aws.sfn().describeExecution({ executionArn }).promise();
-      executions.push(execution);
-    }
-    catch (e) {
-      // it's ok if a execution is still in the queue and has not be executed
-      if (e.code === 'ExecutionDoesNotExist') {
-        executions.push({ executionArn: executionArn, status: 'RUNNING' });
-      }
-      else throw e;
-    }
-  }
+  const promisedExecutionDescriptions = runningExecutionArns.map((executionArn) =>
+    limit(() => describeExecutionStatus(executionArn)));
 
-  const groupedExecutions = groupExecutionsByStatus(executions);
-  const counter = getCounterFromEvent(event) + 1;
-  const exceededLimit = counter >= getLimitFromEvent(event);
+  return Promise.all(promisedExecutionDescriptions)
+    .then(groupExecutionsByStatus)
+    .then((groupedExecutions) => {
+      const counter = getCounterFromEvent(event) + 1;
+      const exceededLimit = counter >= getLimitFromEvent(event);
 
-  const executionsAllDone = groupedExecutions.running.length === 0;
-  if (!executionsAllDone && exceededLimit) {
-    throw new IncompleteError(`PDR didn't complete after ${counter} checks`);
-  }
+      const executionsAllDone = groupedExecutions.running.length === 0;
 
-  const output = buildOutput(event, groupedExecutions);
-  if (!output.isFinished) logStatus(output);
-  return output;
+      if (!executionsAllDone && exceededLimit) {
+        throw new IncompleteError(`PDR didn't complete after ${counter} checks`);
+      }
+
+      const output = buildOutput(event, groupedExecutions);
+      if (!output.isFinished) logStatus(output);
+      return output;
+    });
 }
 exports.checkPdrStatuses = checkPdrStatuses;
 
diff --git a/cumulus/tasks/pdr-status-check/package.json b/cumulus/tasks/pdr-status-check/package.json
index bace424943f..74aa7aa4e83 100644
--- a/cumulus/tasks/pdr-status-check/package.json
+++ b/cumulus/tasks/pdr-status-check/package.json
@@ -52,13 +52,16 @@
     "babel-preset-es2017": "^6.24.1",
     "json-loader": "^0.5.7",
     "lodash.get": "^4.4.2",
+    "p-limit": "^1.1.0",
     "webpack": "^1.12.13"
   },
   "devDependencies": {
     "@ava/babel-preset-stage-4": "^1.1.0",
     "@ava/babel-preset-transform-test-files": "^3.0.0",
     "ava": "^0.23.0",
+    "delay": "^2.0.0",
     "lodash": "^4.17.5",
+    "moment": "^2.21.0",
     "proxyquire": "^1.8.0",
     "sinon": "^2.0.0-pre.5"
   }
diff --git a/cumulus/tasks/pdr-status-check/tests/index.js b/cumulus/tasks/pdr-status-check/tests/index.js
index 4c8edc8f416..c4cc285e423 100644
--- a/cumulus/tasks/pdr-status-check/tests/index.js
+++ b/cumulus/tasks/pdr-status-check/tests/index.js
@@ -3,8 +3,11 @@
 const _ = require('lodash');
 const test = require('ava');
 const sinon = require('sinon');
+const delay = require('delay');
+const moment = require('moment');
 const aws = require('@cumulus/common/aws');
 const { checkPdrStatuses } = require('../index');
+const { randomString } = require('@cumulus/common/test-utils');
 
 test('valid output when no running executions', (t) => {
   const event = {
@@ -122,3 +125,40 @@ test('returns the correct results in the nominal case', (t) => {
       });
     });
 });
+
+test('test concurrency limit setting on sfn api calls', (t) => {
+  _.set(process, 'env.CONCURRENCY', 20);
+  const stubSfnClient = {
+    describeExecution: ({ executionArn }) => ({
+      promise: () => delay(100)
+        .then(() => Promise.resolve({ executionArn, status: 'SUCCEEDED' }))
+    })
+  };
+  const stub = sinon.stub(aws, 'sfn').returns(stubSfnClient);
+
+  const running = [];
+  const uuid = randomString();
+  for (let i = 0; i < 200; i++) running[i] = `${uuid}:${i}`;
+
+  const event = {
+    input: {
+      running,
+      pdr: { name: 'test.PDR', path: 'test-path' }
+    }
+  };
+  const startTime = moment();
+  return checkPdrStatuses(event)
+    .then((output) => {
+      stub.restore();
+
+      t.true(output.isFinished);
+
+      // the sf api execution time would be approximately:
+      // ((# of executions)/(# of concurrency) ) * (function execution time)
+      // (200/20) * 100 = 1000
+      // add 100ms for other operations
+      const endTime = moment();
+      const timeEscaped = moment.duration(endTime.diff(startTime)).as('milliseconds');
+      t.true(timeEscaped >= 900 && timeEscaped <= 1100);
+    });
+});