429 Too Many Requests
The client has sent too many requests in a given amount of time.
What it means
HTTP 429 Too Many Requests means the client has hit a rate limit. The server is throttling because too many requests arrived in a short window. A Retry-After header often indicates how long to wait before trying again.
When it happens
It happens with aggressive scraping or crawling, API clients exceeding their quota, or a sudden traffic spike tripping rate-limit rules.
How to fix it
- Honour the Retry-After header and slow your request rate.
- Add backoff and retry logic to API clients.
- Raise rate limits or whitelist trusted crawlers if you are blocking them unintentionally.
- Cache responses to reduce the number of requests hitting the origin.
SEO impact
Harmful if it throttles crawlers. If Googlebot repeatedly receives 429, it slows crawling and pages may go stale or drop out. Ensure rate limits are generous enough for legitimate search engine bots.
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Related codes
The server could not understand the request due to malformed syntax.
401 UnauthorizedAuthentication is required and has failed or not been provided.
402 Payment RequiredA largely reserved code intended for payment-gated access to a resource.
403 ForbiddenThe server understood the request but refuses to authorize it.
404 Not FoundThe server could not find the requested resource.
405 Method Not AllowedThe HTTP method used is not supported for the requested resource.
Related guides
A plain-English primer on HTTP status codes for SEOs: what the 2xx, 3xx, 4xx, and 5xx families mean, which ones affect rankings, and the codes worth knowing.
How to find and fix broken linksA practical walkthrough for finding broken links on your site, working out why each one breaks, and fixing them so visitors and crawlers stop hitting dead ends.