# HTTP header: Retry-After

Independent and unofficial. Not affiliated with or endorsed by any broker or platform named here. Educational only: nothing here is advice, and nothing here recommends a broker or a trade.

This is the markdown version of https://openbrokerapi.com/errors/http/retry-after, written from the same records as that page.

Risk warning: CFDs and spread bets are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You can lose money on these products, and each provider publishes its own loss figure under FCA rules. You should consider whether you understand how they work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. Automated and API trading can amplify losses through bugs, connectivity failures and runaway orders.

As text you can copy:

```
Retry-After
```

- Kind: Header
- Where you meet it: In the headers of an HTTP reply
- Read from: [RFC 9110, HTTP Semantics, section 10.2.3](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9110.html#section-10.2.3)
- Status: verified. Source: [rfc-editor.org](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9110.html#section-10.2.3), checked 2026-10-09.

## What does Retry-After mean in HTTP?

A header a server sends to say how long the client ought to wait before making a follow-up request. Its value is either a date and time or a whole number of seconds. Sent with 503, it says how long the service is expected to be unavailable.

## What it means in trading API work

It is the server telling your program how long to pause. A 429 reply may carry it as well, under RFC 6585. Not every trading API sends it, so code that relies on it needs a fallback wait of its own.

This part is this site's own explanation, written for people learning to call a trading API. It is not part of the source cited above and it describes no particular broker.

## What should I do about Retry-After?

Read the header on 429 and 503 replies. If it is a number, wait that many seconds; if it is a date, wait until then. If it is absent, wait, and lengthen the wait after each further refusal.

This page is an independent explanation in plain words. The definition itself is in [the source it was read from](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9110.html#section-10.2.3), which is the authority if the two ever differ.

## Where to go next

- [Everything decoded for HTTP](https://openbrokerapi.com/errors/http)
- [Getting started with API trading](https://openbrokerapi.com/guides/getting-started-with-api-trading): What an API is, what you need and how to make a first call safely.
- [Brokers](https://openbrokerapi.com/brokers): The record for each broker: access, limits, endpoints and error codes.
- [Platform APIs](https://openbrokerapi.com/platforms): APIs that belong to trading software offered by many brokers.
- [Error codes](https://openbrokerapi.com/errors): What each error means, and the fix where the source gives one.

## Licence and how to cite

The records behind this page are all rights reserved. This file is the page itself, at its own address, in another format. It is not part of the CC BY 4.0 downloads listed at https://openbrokerapi.com/data. Quote from it with a link to the page.

Cite as: HTTP header: Retry-After. Broker API Hub, https://openbrokerapi.com/errors/http/retry-after, newest check 2026-10-09.

Where you rely on a single figure, cite the source and the checked date printed beside it as well. Where this page and a broker's own documentation differ, the documentation wins.