| title | slug | page-type | browser-compat |
|---|---|---|---|
Retry-After |
Web/HTTP/Headers/Retry-After |
http-header |
http.headers.Retry-After |
{{HTTPSidebar}}
The Retry-After response HTTP header indicates how long
the user agent should wait before making a follow-up request. There are three main cases
this header is used:
- When sent with a {{HTTPStatus(503)}} (Service Unavailable) response, this indicates how long the service is expected to be unavailable.
- When sent with a {{HTTPStatus(429)}} (Too Many Requests) response, this indicates how long to wait before making a new request.
- When sent with a redirect response, such as {{HTTPStatus(301)}} (Moved Permanently), this indicates the minimum time that the user agent is asked to wait before issuing the redirected request.
| Header type | {{Glossary("Response header")}} |
|---|---|
| {{Glossary("Forbidden header name")}} | no |
Retry-After: <http-date>
Retry-After: <delay-seconds>- <http-date>
- : A date after which to retry. See the {{HTTPHeader("Date")}} header for more details on the HTTP date format.
- <delay-seconds>
- : A non-negative decimal integer indicating the seconds to delay after the response is received.
Support for the Retry-After header on both clients and servers is still
inconsistent. However, some crawlers and spiders, like the Googlebot, honor the
Retry-After header. It is useful to send it along with a
{{HTTPStatus(503)}} (Service Unavailable) response, so that search engines will keep
indexing your site when the downtime is over.
Retry-After: Wed, 21 Oct 2015 07:28:00 GMT
Retry-After: 120{{Specifications}}
{{Compat}}
- Google Webmaster blog: How to deal with planned site downtime
- {{HTTPStatus(503)}} (Service Unavailable)
- {{HTTPStatus(301)}} (Moved Permanently)