diff --git a/bin/apisix b/bin/apisix
index 89b26326258e..0102c389c135 100755
--- a/bin/apisix
+++ b/bin/apisix
@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ worker_cpu_affinity auto;
 error_log {* error_log *} {* error_log_level or "error" *};
 pid logs/nginx.pid;
 
-worker_rlimit_nofile 20480;
+worker_rlimit_nofile {* worker_rlimit_nofile *};
 
 events {
     accept_mutex off;
@@ -524,6 +524,13 @@ local function init()
         sys_conf[k] = v
     end
 
+    local wrn = sys_conf["worker_rlimit_nofile"]
+    local wc = sys_conf["event"]["worker_connections"]
+    if not wrn or wrn <= wc then
+        -- ensure the number of fds is slightly larger than the number of conn
+        sys_conf["worker_rlimit_nofile"] = wc + 128
+    end
+
     if(sys_conf["enable_dev_mode"] == true) then
         sys_conf["worker_processes"] = 1
     else
diff --git a/conf/config.yaml b/conf/config.yaml
index 18d1ec3f4113..274a8cfed08c 100644
--- a/conf/config.yaml
+++ b/conf/config.yaml
@@ -59,6 +59,7 @@ apisix:
 nginx_config:                     # config for render the template to genarate nginx.conf
   error_log: "logs/error.log"
   error_log_level: "warn"         # warn,error
+  worker_rlimit_nofile: 20480     # the number of files a worker process can open, should be larger than worker_connections
   event:
     worker_connections: 10620
   http: