How long should I wait after a 429?
If the response has Retry-After, wait that long. If not, back off exponentially, for example 1, 2, 4, then 8 seconds, adding random jitter so many clients do not retry in lockstep.
HTTP 429 TOO MANY REQUESTS
Rate limited. Retry-After says when to try again. 429 belongs to the 4xx client error class and is defined in RFC 6585.
Loading the workbench.
About HTTP 429
What Does HTTP 429 Too Many Requests Mean?
Rate limited. Retry-After says when to try again. The code is registered with IANA and defined in RFC 6585.
Client error: the request has a problem, so it cannot be fulfilled as sent. Every code from 400 to 499 shares that general meaning, so a client that does not recognise 429 must treat it like 400.
When Do You See a 429 Response?
429 Too Many Requests is rate limiting: the client sent more requests in a time window than the server allows. APIs return it when a key exceeds its quota, login endpoints when they detect brute force, and CDNs and bot protection when a single IP is too aggressive. Crawlers, retry loops without backoff, and parallel scripts are the usual causes. Many APIs add RateLimit or X-RateLimit headers describing the limits.
How Do You Fix a 429?
Clients should wait before retrying, honoring Retry-After when present, and otherwise back off exponentially with random jitter. Reduce concurrency and cache results you fetch repeatedly. Servers should send Retry-After with seconds or a date, plus current limit information, and must not cache the 429. Retrying immediately in a tight loop usually extends the block, and can turn a short limit into a longer ban.
What Does a 429 Response Look Like?
HTTP/1.1 429 Too Many Requests
Retry-After: 120
RateLimit-Policy: 100;w=60
Content-Type: application/json429 is not cacheable by default: a browser or CDN stores it only when Cache-Control or Expires explicitly allows it.
To inspect a real one without sending it anywhere:
- Copy the response headers from your browser Network tab, or from
curl -i. - Paste them into the Header decoder to see every header explained.
- Check caching in the Cache lane.
Which Status Codes Are Related to 429?
- 503 Service Unavailable: Overloaded or down for maintenance. Retry-After may say when it will return.
- 403 Forbidden: The server knows who you are and refuses anyway. Logging in again will not help.
- 402 Payment Required: Reserved for future use. Some APIs use it for billing limits.
Browse every code on the HTTP status codes page.
What Other Lanes Are in the Reference Section?
- HTTP status codes: Every IANA-registered status code, with a page per code.
- MIME types: File extensions to Content-Type, searchable both ways, plus a Content-Type parser.
- HTTP methods: GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE and the rest: safe, idempotent, cacheable.
Elsewhere in 2http: Header decoder, Cookie decoder, Cache-Control decoder, CORS checker, User-agent parser, and all eleven lanes on the 2http home page. Part of the 2suite.io privacy-first ecosystem.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a 429 mean I am banned?
Usually not. It is a temporary limit that resets after the window passes. Repeated violations can lead some services to block you for longer, though.
Is HTTP 429 an error?
Yes. 429 is a client error response: the problem is in the request, so repeating it unchanged will usually fail again.
Is a 429 response cacheable by default?
No. Caches store a 429 only when Cache-Control or Expires explicitly allows it.
How Can You Verify That Nothing Leaves This Browser?
You do not have to take our word that your headers stay here. Developer tools show every request a page makes, so you can watch this page work and confirm that nothing is sent. The check takes under a minute.
- Open your browser developer tools with
F12, orCmd+Option+Ion a Mac, and select the Network tab. - Reload the page and let it finish. You will see the page's own files, its web fonts, and one anonymous page-view request. Nothing has been typed yet, so none of them can contain your headers.
- Click the clear icon in the Network tab so that the log is empty.
- Paste real headers into any lane and read the result.
- Look at the Network tab again. It is still empty. For extra proof, turn on offline mode after the page loads and every lane keeps working.
Only two things can add a line to that log, and neither carries your headers. Submitting the feedback form sends the vote and comment you typed. Typing characters in a script the page has not displayed yet, such as Cyrillic or Greek, can make the browser fetch the matching font file, and that request names only the font.
2http never sends a request on your behalf: the request builder writes code for you to run, and the meta inspector reads source you paste instead of fetching a URL. The production site also sends a Content-Security-Policy header that tells your browser to refuse connections to anywhere except this site and the anonymous analytics endpoint.