The present invention provides an Internet Key Exchange (IKE) daemon self-adjusting negotiation throttle for minimizing retransmission processing during Security Association (SA) negotiation requests. A method in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention includes: receiving a request for a new negotiation to be performed by a negotiation system; determining if the negotiation system is in congestion; and if the negotiation system is determined to be in congestion: determining if a token is available in a token bucket; and if a token is available in the token bucket, removing the token from the token bucket; and performing the new negotiation.