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OpenAI: Rate Limit Exceeded (429)

Current Status: Major Outage
Last checked: 21m ago

What We're Seeing Right Now

No recent issues reported. If you're experiencing problems with OpenAI, report below to help the community.

What is this error?

A 429 'Rate Limit Exceeded' error from OpenAI means you've sent too many requests in a given time period. This is a protective measure to ensure fair usage across all users. It can be triggered by your individual usage or by OpenAI-wide capacity constraints.

Error Signatures

429 Too Many RequestsRate limit reachedRate limit exceededToo many requestsinsufficient_quotaquota_exceededTPM limit exceededRPM limit exceededYou exceeded your current quotaPlease try again later

Common Causes

  • Exceeded your plan's requests-per-minute (RPM) or tokens-per-minute (TPM) limit
  • Organization or project-level quota exhausted for the billing period
  • Too many concurrent/parallel requests from the same API key
  • OpenAI is throttling all users due to high global demand
  • Free tier limits reached — upgrade required for higher throughput

✓ How to Fix It

  1. Check your usage dashboard on OpenAI's platform to see current consumption
  2. Implement exponential backoff: wait 1s after first 429, then 2s, 4s, 8s
  3. Reduce concurrency — send fewer parallel requests
  4. Use batching or queuing to spread requests over time
  5. Consider upgrading your plan for higher rate limits
  6. If available, use OpenAI's batch/async API for non-urgent requests
OpenAI Resources:

Live Signals

Service Components
DALL-E
Operational
Sora
Operational
OpenAI API
Operational
ChatGPT
Operational

Recent Incidents

MAJOR✓ Resolved
ChatGPT elevated error rates
Users experiencing 502 Bad Gateway errors and request timeouts for ~45 minutes
7d ago → 7d ago

Frequently Asked Questions

Why am I getting rate limited on OpenAI?
You've either exceeded your plan's request limits (RPM/TPM) or OpenAI is experiencing high demand and throttling globally. Check your usage dashboard and the live status on this page.
How do I fix OpenAI rate limit errors?
Implement exponential backoff, reduce parallel requests, and check if you need to upgrade your plan. See the step-by-step fix guide above.
Is OpenAI rate limiting everyone right now?
Check the community reports below. If many users are reporting 'API Errors' or 'Slow' at the same time, it's likely a global issue, not just your account.

Related Pages

📊 OpenAI Status Dashboard❓ Is OpenAI Down?
Other OpenAI issues:
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