Fix: 429 Too Many Requests / Insufficient Quota

This page helps you fix rate limit and quota errors from AI providers.

🔴 Raw Error Log (What You Actually See)

You may see one of these errors:

Error: 429 You exceeded your current quota, please check your plan and billing details

Or:

Error: Rate limit exceeded
Error: Insufficient funds
Error: You have exceeded your rate limit

If your error looks similar, you are in the right place.

🔍 Why This Happens (Root Cause)

This error means:

1. You have no credits in your API account (most common)
2. Free trial credits expired (OpenAI trial credits expire after 3 months)
3. Rate limit hit (too many requests per minute)
4. Usage cap reached (monthly spending limit)

⚠️ Important: This is NOT a bug in OpenClaw. It's a billing/limit issue with your API provider.

✅ How to Fix It (Step-by-Step)

For OpenAI Users

Step 1 — Check Your Credit Balance

1. Go to OpenAI Billing
2. Look at your credit balance

If it says $0.00:

• Free trial credits may have expired
• You need to add a payment method and buy credits

Step 2 — Add Credits

1. Click "Add payment method" if you haven't
2. Click "Buy credits" and add at least $5

Step 3 — Check Usage Limits

1. Go to Usage Limits
2. Make sure your monthly limit isn't set too low

For Anthropic Users

Step 1 — Check Your Credit Balance

1. Go to Anthropic Console
2. Check your billing section

Important: Anthropic requires a minimum $5 deposit to use the API, even if Claude chat is free.

Step 2 — Add Credits

1. Add a payment method
2. Load at least $5 to your account

If You're Hitting Rate Limits (Not Quota)

If you have credits but still see 429 errors during heavy usage:

# Wait a few seconds between requests
# Or upgrade your API tier for higher limits

🔎 Verify the Fix

After adding credits, restart OpenClaw:

npm run start

Then try sending a message.

✅ Expected Result

The bot responds normally without 429 errors.

❌ Still Not Working?

• Wait 5 minutes — Sometimes billing updates take a moment to propagate
• Check API key — Make sure you're using the correct key for the funded account
• See Fix: 401 Invalid API Key

🧭 Advanced Notes

Cost Estimation:

| Model | Approximate Cost | |-------|------------------| | GPT-4o | ~$0.01 per 1,000 tokens | | GPT-4 | ~$0.03 per 1,000 tokens | | Claude 3 | ~$0.015 per 1,000 tokens |

A typical conversation uses 500-2,000 tokens. $5 credit can last for hundreds of conversations.

🔗 Related: Common Errors Summary | Error Dictionary