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529Anthropic (Claude)· Rate limits

Anthropic “Overloaded” error (529)

Overloaded
Quick answer

A 529 “Overloaded” means Anthropic’s API is temporarily over capacity — it’s on their side, not yours. Retry with backoff, and add a fallback model so your app keeps working during spikes.

What causes it

How to fix it

  1. Retry with exponential backoff — overload is usually brief.
  2. Configure a fallback model/provider so requests reroute when Claude is busy.
  3. Avoid retry storms that pile on while the API is recovering.
Running an agent?

Agents that hard-pin a single provider stall completely on a 529. Auto-failover keeps them running through provider spikes.

The permanent fix

Stop hitting this entirely

Standard Compute fails over across providers automatically. If one frontier model is overloaded, it reroutes to another behind the same endpoint — you never configure fallbacks or see a 529.

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FAQ

Is a 529 my fault?

No. 529 means the provider is over capacity. The only client-side fix is to retry and to have a fallback so you’re not dependent on one provider’s spare capacity.

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