429 Too Many Requests

What it means

The Retry-After header often says how long to wait before trying again.

Common causes

• Exceeding an API rate limit.
• Aggressive crawling or automated scripts.
• Bot protection throttling.

How to fix it

1. Wait for the Retry-After period and back off exponentially.
2. Cache responses and batch requests.

Example response

HTTP/1.1 429 Too Many Requests
Retry-After: 60

Worked example

A client sends a request the server cannot fulfill as submitted. Check the response body and request details, correct the input or permissions, and retry only after the relevant issue is resolved.

How to read this response

1. Find the status line in your browser's Network panel, API client, or server access log.
2. Read the response body and headers shown above; headers such as Location, Allow, Retry-After, and WWW-Authenticate explain the next step.
3. Use the code's class to orient your diagnosis: informational, successful, redirected, request-related, or server-side.

SEO impact

Repeated 429s to search crawlers slow down crawling. Allow reasonable crawl rates for verified bots.

How to check a status code

Enter a URL in the HTTP Status Checker to see its status code, every redirect hop, and response time. For redirect-heavy pages, the Website Speed Test shows how much time redirects add.

Frequently asked questions

What it means: HTTP 429

429 Too Many Requests: The client sent too many requests in a given time and is being rate limited.

Common causes: 429

Exceeding an API rate limit. Aggressive crawling or automated scripts. Bot protection throttling.

How to fix it: HTTP 429

Wait for the Retry-After period and back off exponentially. Cache responses and batch requests.

Tools