diff --git a/ai21/http_client.py b/ai21/http_client.py
index 7bb1343f..834869fa 100644
--- a/ai21/http_client.py
+++ b/ai21/http_client.py
@@ -149,7 +149,10 @@ def _init_client(self, client: Optional[httpx.Client]) -> httpx.Client:
         if client is not None:
             return client
 
-        return _requests_retry_session(retries=self._num_retries) if self._apply_retry_policy else httpx.Client()
+        if self._apply_retry_policy:
+            return httpx.Client(transport=_requests_retry_session(retries=self._num_retries))
+
+        return httpx.Client()
 
     def add_headers(self, headers: Dict[str, Any]) -> None:
         self._headers.update(headers)
diff --git a/tests/integration_tests/clients/studio/test_chat_completions.py b/tests/integration_tests/clients/studio/test_chat_completions.py
index d564aeac..6d90317d 100644
--- a/tests/integration_tests/clients/studio/test_chat_completions.py
+++ b/tests/integration_tests/clients/studio/test_chat_completions.py
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+import json
+from unittest.mock import patch
+
+import httpx
+
 from ai21 import AI21Client
 from ai21.models.chat import ChatMessage, ChatCompletionResponse, ChatCompletionChunk, ChoicesChunk, ChoiceDelta
 from ai21.models import RoleType
@@ -10,6 +15,16 @@
     ),
 ]
 
+_BAD_HTTPX_REQUEST = httpx.Request(method="POST", url="http://test_url")
+_BAD_HTTPX_RESPONSE = httpx.Response(status_code=500, request=_BAD_HTTPX_REQUEST)
+_EXPECTED_MESSAGE_CONTENT = {
+    "id": "test",
+    "choices": [
+        {"index": 0, "message": {"content": "test", "role": "assistant"}, "finish_reason": None, "logprobs": None}
+    ],
+    "usage": {"prompt_tokens": 1, "total_tokens": 2, "completion_tokens": 1},
+}
+
 
 def test_chat_completion():
     messages = _MESSAGES
@@ -29,6 +44,30 @@ def test_chat_completion():
     assert response.choices[0].message.role
 
 
+def test_chat_completion_when_num_retries_is_over_1__should_retry():
+    num_retries = 3
+
+    with patch.object(
+        httpx.Client,
+        "send",
+        side_effect=[
+            _BAD_HTTPX_RESPONSE,
+            _BAD_HTTPX_RESPONSE,
+            httpx.Response(status_code=200, content=json.dumps(_EXPECTED_MESSAGE_CONTENT)),
+        ],
+    ) as mock_send:
+        messages = _MESSAGES
+
+        client = AI21Client(num_retries=num_retries)
+        response = client.chat.completions.create(
+            model=_MODEL,
+            messages=messages,
+        )
+
+        assert isinstance(response, ChatCompletionResponse)
+        assert mock_send.call_count == num_retries
+
+
 def test_chat_completion__with_n_param__should_return_n_choices():
     messages = _MESSAGES
     n = 3