A computerized method of adaptively transcoding media in a communications network such that computer processing resources are effectively utilized to deal with varying traffic patterns in the communications network, the method comprising: receiving, by a computing device, a request to transcode content for delivery from a content provider to an end user device; determining, by the computing device, a number of CPU cores associated with the computing device based on at least one of a number of virtual machines provisioned to transcode the content; determining, by the computing device, a first amount of tokens based on: a pooled amount of tokens associated with the number of CPU cores associated with the computing device, and a currently used amount of tokens, the currently used amount of tokens being associated with a number of other transcoding requests being processed by the computing device; determining, by the computing device, a second amount of tokens associated with transcoding the content based on at least one of a size of the content, a type of the content, a resolution of the content, and a frame rate of the content; and when the first amount of tokens is less than the second amount of tokens: bypassing transcoding for the content, or adjusting a transcoding parameter to reduce the second amount of tokens associated with transcoding the content, wherein the reduced amount of tokens is less than the first amount of tokens. receiving, by a computing device, a request to transcode content for delivery from a content provider to an end user device; determining, by the computing device, a number of CPU cores associated with the computing device based on at least one of a number of virtual machines provisioned to transcode the content; determining, by the computing device, a first amount of tokens based on: a pooled amount of tokens associated with the number of CPU cores associated with the computing device, and a currently used amount of tokens, the currently used amount of tokens being associated with a number of other transcoding requests being processed by the computing device; determining, by the computing device, a second amount of tokens associated with transcoding the content based on at least one of a size of the content, a type of the content, a resolution of the content, and a frame rate of the content; and when the first amount of tokens is less than the second amount of tokens: bypassing transcoding for the content, or adjusting a transcoding parameter to reduce the second amount of tokens associated with transcoding the content, wherein the reduced amount of tokens is less than the first amount of tokens. a pooled amount of tokens associated with the number of CPU cores associated with the computing device, and a currently used amount of tokens, the currently used amount of tokens being associated with a number of other transcoding requests being processed by the computing device; determining, by the computing device, a second amount of tokens associated with transcoding the content based on at least one of a size of the content, a type of the content, a resolution of the content, and a frame rate of the content; and when the first amount of tokens is less than the second amount of tokens: bypassing transcoding for the content, or adjusting a transcoding parameter to reduce the second amount of tokens associated with transcoding the content, wherein the reduced amount of tokens is less than the first amount of tokens. bypassing transcoding for the content, or adjusting a transcoding parameter to reduce the second amount of tokens associated with transcoding the content, wherein the reduced amount of tokens is less than the first amount of tokens.