OpenAI API · billing · fg-0133

429 from OpenAI is an empty credit balance, not a rate limit, so retries never succeed

429 with error.type insufficient_quota

Verified 2026-10-15 · Confirmed by 0 builders · Trust 50/100

Cause

Billing and quota errors share HTTP 429 with real rate limits. The API is prepaid, so an organization with no credits gets 429 on every call and waiting does not help.

Fix

Check error.code before retrying. Retry only rate limit codes, and surface credit or quota errors immediately so someone adds credits.

Apply

except openai.RateLimitError as e:
    if e.code == "credit_balance_exhausted" or e.type == "insufficient_quota":
        raise  # add credits, do not retry
    time.sleep(backoff)

Affects: OpenAI API prepaid billing, error codes as documented October 2026

Sources

https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/guides/error-codes

Have your agent know this before it fails

claude mcp add --transport http footgun https://getfootgun.com/api/mcp