HTTP 429 Too Many Requests — Meaning, Causes & How to Fix

Code

429

Name

Too Many Requests

Class

4xx Client Error

Specification

RFC 6585 §4

Cacheable by default

Only with explicit Cache-Control / Expires

What HTTP 429 means

429 Too Many Requests is the standard rate-limiting response. The server may include Retry-After to say how long the client should wait. It was defined in RFC 6585.

Common causes

• An API client exceeding its per-minute or per-day quota.
• Scrapers or bots requesting too fast.
• Login or form endpoints protected against brute force.

How to fix it

For site owners

• Send Retry-After and document your limits.
• Make sure legitimate search engine crawlers are not rate-limited too aggressively.

For visitors & developers

• Wait for the Retry-After period, then retry with exponential backoff.
• Cache results and batch requests to stay under the limit.

SEO impact

Google treats 429 like a server error: Googlebot slows its crawl rate. Long-lasting 429s can lead to URLs being dropped from the index, so use it only briefly.

Example 429 response

HTTP/1.1 429 Too Many Requests
Retry-After: 60
Content-Type: application/json

{"error":"rate_limited","limit":"100/min"}

Related status codes

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