# 429 Too Many Requests

Category: [Technical SEO](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/category/technical-seo/) › [HTTP status codes](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/category/technical-seo/http-status-codes/) · Also known as: HTTP 429, rate limit error

The HTTP status code **429 Too Many Requests** means a client has sent too many requests in a given time. The mechanism behind it is rate limiting, which a server can apply to the whole site or to single resources.

## How does 429 work?

Servers usually identify the client by IP address, though limits can also target users or applications through cookies (MDN). The response may carry a `Retry-After` header that tells the client how long to wait before the next request. The value is either a number of seconds or an HTTP date.

## What does 429 mean for crawling?

Google treats 429 as a signal that the server is overloaded and handles it as a server error. Together with 5xx errors, it makes Google's crawlers slow down temporarily and lowers the crawl rate for the site. Google states that URLs which persistently return a server error are removed from the index, without naming a time frame.

429 is the only 4xx code Google reads this way. All other 4xx codes have no effect on crawl rate.

A rate limit that is too strict can therefore throttle crawlers or block them from important pages.

## Example

```http
HTTP/1.1 429 Too Many Requests
Content-Type: text/html
Retry-After: 3600
```

The client should wait an hour before trying again.

## At a glance

- **Status code:** 429
- **Class:** 4xx (treated by Google like a server error)
- **Duration:** temporary, Retry-After can state the wait time
- **In Google:** signal of an overloaded server, crawling slows down temporarily
- **Caching:** must not be stored by a cache according to the RFC
- **Specification:** [RFC 6585, section 4](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6585.html#section-4)

Last checked: October 8, 2026

## Server errors and 429 compared

| Status code | Meaning per RFC | How Googlebot reacts | Effect on the index | Retry-After |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 429 Too Many Requests | too many requests in a given amount of time (rate limiting, RFC 6585) | treated as a sign of an overloaded server and as a server error; crawling temporarily slows down | indexed URLs are kept for now; if Googlebot sees the code on the same URL for multiple days, it may be dropped | RFC: may be included; Google: tells crawlers when they can retry |
| 500 Internal Server Error | unexpected condition on the server | the site's crawl rate drops in proportion to the number of URLs returning a server error | indexed URLs are kept for now; persistent errors get them removed, possibly after multiple days on the same URL | Google only describes it for 503 and 429 |
| 502 Bad Gateway | a gateway or proxy got an invalid response from the server behind it | same as 500 | indexed URLs are kept for now and removed if the error persists | Google only describes it for 503 and 429 |
| 503 Service Unavailable | temporarily unavailable, for example due to overload or maintenance | same as 500 | indexed URLs are kept for now; if Googlebot sees the code on the same URL for multiple days, it may be dropped | RFC: may be included and states the expected downtime; Google: tells crawlers when they can retry (seconds or a date) |
| 504 Gateway Timeout | a gateway or proxy didn't get a timely response from the server behind it | not listed individually by Google; for all 5xx codes, crawling temporarily slows down | indexed URLs are kept for now but eventually dropped (statement for all 5xx) | Google only describes it for 503 and 429 |

Sources: [Google Crawling Infrastructure: How HTTP status codes affect Google's crawlers (last updated 2026-02-04)](https://developers.google.com/crawling/docs/troubleshooting/http-status-codes); [Google Crawling Infrastructure: Reduce the Google crawl rate (last updated 2026-10-06)](https://developers.google.com/crawling/docs/crawlers-fetchers/reduce-crawl-rate); [Google Crawling Infrastructure: Debug network and DNS errors (last updated 2025-12-18)](https://developers.google.com/crawling/docs/troubleshooting/dns-network-errors); [RFC 9110: HTTP Semantics, 15.6 Server Error 5xx and 10.2.3 Retry-After](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9110.html#name-server-error-5xx); [RFC 6585: Additional HTTP Status Codes, 4. 429 Too Many Requests](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6585.html#section-4). Last checked: October 8, 2026

## Related terms

- [Rate limiting](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/rate-limiting/index.md)
- [503 Service Unavailable](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/503-service-unavailable/index.md)
- [5xx server errors](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/5xx-server-errors/index.md)
- [Crawl rate](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/crawl-rate/index.md)
- [HTTP header](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/http-header/index.md)

## Sources

- [429 Too Many Requests – MDN Web Docs](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Reference/Status/429)
- [RFC 6585, section 4: 429 Too Many Requests – IETF](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6585#section-4)
- [Retry-After header – MDN Web Docs](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Reference/Headers/Retry-After)
- [How HTTP status codes affect Google's crawlers – Google Crawling Infrastructure](https://developers.google.com/crawling/docs/troubleshooting/http-status-codes)

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Last updated: October 8, 2026
URL: https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/429-too-many-requests/