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429 Too Many Requests
HTTP 429 Too Many Requests. The client has sent too many requests in a given time (rate limiting). The response may include a Retry-After header telling the client when to try again. When to use it: Return when a client exceeds a rate limit or quota. It is a client-error (4xx) status, which means the problem is with the request and the caller must change something before retrying. (Reference: RFC 6585 §4.)
The client has sent too many requests in a given time (rate limiting). The response may include a Retry-After header telling the client when to try again.
- When to use: Return when a client exceeds a rate limit or quota.
- How to handle: Slow down and respect the Retry-After header before retrying; add backoff to the client.
- Reference: RFC 6585 §4
- Category: 4xx Client Error
Frequently asked questions
What does HTTP 429 mean?
HTTP 429 Too Many Requests: The client has sent too many requests in a given time (rate limiting). The response may include a Retry-After header telling the client when to try again. It is a client-error (4xx) status, which means the problem is with the request and the caller must change something before retrying. It is defined in RFC 6585 §4.
How should a client handle 429 and the Retry-After header?
429 Too Many Requests means you have been rate-limited. If the response includes a Retry-After header — either a number of seconds or an HTTP date — wait until that moment before retrying. Add exponential backoff with jitter so many clients do not retry in lockstep, and never tight-loop on a 429, which only deepens the throttling. Respecting Retry-After is the difference between recovering gracefully and getting blocked.