xtekky/gpt4free · error · RateLimitError

Response {response.status}: {message}

Error message

Response {response.status}: {message}

What it means

Raised by g4f's async raise_for_status helper when an upstream provider returns HTTP 429 (Too Many Requests) or 402 (Payment Required). g4f wraps every provider HTTP call, so any aiohttp/StreamResponse with status 429/402 and a non-ok body becomes a RateLimitError. The message embeds the parsed body: JSON responses are unwrapped to their 'error'/'message' field, others are passed as text.

Source

Thrown at g4f/requests/raise_for_status.py:69

                error = message.get("error")
                if isinstance(error, dict):
                    message = error.get("message")
                else:
                    message = message.get("message", message)
                if isinstance(error, str):
                    message = f"{error}: {message}"
            except json.JSONDecodeError:
                message = await response.text()
        else:
            message = (await response.text()).strip()
            is_html = content_type.startswith(
                "text/html"
            ) or message.lower().startswith("<!DOCTYPE".lower())
    if message is None or is_html:
        if response.status == 520:
            message = "Unknown error (Cloudflare)"
    if response.status in (429, 402):
        raise RateLimitError(f"Response {response.status}: {message}")
    if response.status == 401:
        raise MissingAuthError(f"Response {response.status}: {message}")
    if response.status == 403 and is_cloudflare(message):
        raise CloudflareError(f"Response {response.status}: Cloudflare detected")
    elif response.status == 403 and (is_openai(message) or is_lmarena(message)):
        raise MissingAuthError(f"Response {response.status}: OpenAI Bot detected")
    elif response.status == 502:
        raise ResponseStatusError(f"Response {response.status}: Bad Gateway")
    elif response.status == 504:
        raise RateLimitError(f"Response {response.status}: Gateway Timeout ")
    elif response.status == 400 and "API key not valid" in message:
        raise MissingAuthError(f"Response {response.status}: Invalid API key")
    else:
        raise ResponseStatusError(
            f"Response {response.status}: {'HTML content' if is_html else message}"
        )

View on GitHub (pinned to 973504e177)

Solutions

1. Back off and retry with exponential delay (RateLimitError means the provider, not g4f, is refusing).
2. Switch provider or rotate to another model/provider in g4f to distribute load.
3. If 402: top up credits or use a free provider — the endpoint requires payment.
4. Add client-side rate limiting (semaphore / token bucket) around g4f calls.

Example fix

// before
resp = await client.post(url, json=payload)
await raise_for_status_async(resp)

// after (python)
from g4f.errors import RateLimitError
try:
    result = await provider.create_completion(...)
except RateLimitError:
    await asyncio.sleep(2 ** attempt)
    result = await provider.create_completion(...)

from g4f.errors import RateLimitError
def is_rate_limit(err: BaseException) -> bool:
    return isinstance(err, RateLimitError)

from g4f.errors import RateLimitError
try:
    result = await client.chat.completions.async_create(...)
except RateLimitError as e:
    if 'Response 402' in str(e):
        switch_provider()  # payment required, retrying won't help
    else:
        await asyncio.sleep(min(60, 2 ** attempt))  # 429: back off and retry

When it happens

Trigger: Calling any async g4f provider client (e.g. AsyncClient.chat.completions.create) where the upstream API answers 429 after you exceed its quota, or 402 when the provider demands payment/credits for the endpoint.

Common situations: Free-tier provider quotas exhausted; too many concurrent requests to one provider; a key with zero balance hitting a paid endpoint; running bulk scripts without throttling.

Related errors

• Response {response.status_code}: {message}
• No coins left. Log in with a different account or wait a whi
• Response {response.status}: Gateway Timeout
• Failed to chat: {response.status} {error_text}
• Failed to decode JSON from PhindAi response: {text}

AI-assisted analysis of xtekky/gpt4free@973504e177 (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4f107cc596467282. Report an issue: GitHub.