An improvement is made to stepped wave static inverters in the form of an instantaneous current control circuit. In case of overload of faults on the inverter output, this circuit acts to limit current in the power switching devices of the inverter. Its performance is an improvement over previous current limit circuits in that it acts instantly to limit overload current and instantly to release that limit so that normal output voltage is restored immediately when the overload is removed. A furtheperformance improvement results because this circuit acts to limit current in the individual power switching devices without necessarily reducing the output voltage of all phases of the inverter.