Adaptive transfer rate for retrieving content from a server

An edge system receives requests from user devices to retrieves files from an origin server. Instead of retrieving the files as fast as possible, the edge system throttles the retrieval of files to a rate that just exceeds the speed at which the file is played by a browser or media player. The edge system determines an appropriate retrieval rate based on the contents of the file itself. For example, a manifest file associated with the file can indicate a time it takes to play back content and a bitrate of the content. Thus, the edge server can use this information to retrieve a file from an origin server at a rate that is just fast enough to minimize playback interruption. The retrieval rate determined by the edge server therefore does not rely on how fast or slow the user device retrieves the file from the edge server.