Claude 529 Overloaded: What It Means and How to Fix It

A Claude 529 overloaded error indicates that Anthropic’s API temporarily lacks capacity for a requested model across all users, unlike a 429 rate-limit error, which reflects an individual organization’s usage limits. The recommended response is to retry requests with exponential backoff and randomized delays, as many overloads resolve within seconds and Anthropic’s SDKs and Claude Code already perform limited automatic retries. For longer outages, the guidance suggests routing the same Claude model through alternative providers available via OpenRouter, which can automatically select healthy endpoints or follow a specified provider order, while noting that restrictive routing settings may prevent failover. If all providers for a model are unavailable, applications can define fallback models, balancing continuity against potential differences in capability. For Claude Code users, options include switching models, increasing retry settings cautiously, or running sessions through OpenRouter using Ori Harness or environment-variable configuration; service status pages and provider uptime information can help diagnose broader disruptions.

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