Retry-After
ResponseActiveThe Retry-After header tells the client how long to wait before making another request. It is used with 429 Too Many Requests (rate limiting) and 503 Service Unavailable. The value can be an integer (seconds) or an HTTP date. Clients that honor Retry-After implement proper backoff behavior.
Retry-After: <delay-seconds> | <http-date>
Description
Retry-After provides explicit retry guidance from the server. For rate limiting (429), it indicates when the rate limit resets. For service unavailability (503), it indicates when the service is expected to resume. When expressed as a date, it uses the HTTP date format. When expressed as a number, it is seconds until retry.
Examples
Rate limit response
http
HTTP/1.1 429 Too Many Requests
Retry-After: 60
X-RateLimit-Limit: 100
X-RateLimit-Remaining: 0Service unavailable
http
HTTP/1.1 503 Service Unavailable
Retry-After: Fri, 31 Dec 2024 23:59:59 GMT