title: What does max_connections really mean?
body: <p>I'm trying to set the ideal performance setup for MySQL and resources needed on a shared hosting. </p>
  
  <p>My question is, what does <code>max_connections</code> really mean?</p>
  
  <p>Is it the number of unique concurrent requests made to the server?
  So if there are two users, 1 with 1 tab open and the other with 4 tabs open... and both press all their tabs to reload at the same time, will there be 5 connections made to the MySQL DB? Consequently, if we bump this scenario to: 10 people with 2 tabs and 31 people with one tab all pressing refresh at the same time... with our <code>max_connections</code> at 50, will everyone get locked out?</p>
  
  <p>The reason I ask is because I want to shoot for low <code>max_connections</code> to be conservative with memory resources since I consistently see the site going into cpu throttling mode</p>
  
  <p>Thank you for your help</p>