OpenAI API 429: You exceeded your current quota / rate limit reached

What it means in plain English

OpenAI refused the request. A 429 means either your account has no credit left, or your app sent requests too quickly.

Likely causes

• No prepaid credits (credit_balance_exhausted/quota).
• Too many requests per minute for your usage tier.
• A loop in your code calling the API repeatedly.

How to fix it, step by step

1. Read the error code/message in your server logs.
2. Credits/quota: add credits in the OpenAI platform billing settings.
3. Rate limit: slow down and retry after the Retry-After header; add retries with backoff.
4. Check for code calling the API in a loop (e.g. inside a React render or useEffect without dependencies).
5. Keep the API key on the server, never in browser code.

How to check it worked

• The AI feature responds again; logs show 200s.

Sources

• https://platform.openai.com/docs/guides/error-codes (opens in a new tab)