[Critical] GLM-5.2 API is unusable due to severe rate limiting — 2 consecutive days of near-total outage

[itanyplus]

Title: [Critical] GLM-5.2 API is unusable due to severe rate limiting — 2 consecutive days of near-total outage

Description

GLM-5.2 API has been effectively unavailable for large portions of the past 3 days due to rate limiting. This is a production-blocking issue affecting paid users.

Timeline & Evidence

June 15 (Day 1 — near-total outage):

• 285 × HTTP 429 errors from midnight through ~16:51 (Beijing time)
• Failure rate: ~50% of all requests
• 39 fallback triggers, 37 probe successes, 1 complete fallback chain exhaustion
• Error: 429 该模型当前访问量过大，请您稍后再试
• Service recovered around 16:51

June 17 (Day 2 — progressively worsening):

Time Window	Rate Limit Errors	Trend
03:00-04:00	2	Low load
08:00-09:00	4	Morning pickup
10:00-11:00	9	Rising
11:00-12:00	22	Surge — every single message fails

• 71 total HTTP 429 errors so far today (still ongoing)
• 18 independent message runs triggered fallback
• 100% failure rate during the 11:00-12:00 window — all primary calls to glm-5.2 returned 429
• Every request forced to fallback to an alternative model

Environment

• Endpoint: zhipuai/glm-5.2 via OpenClaw Gateway (OpenAI-compatible API)
• Account type: Paid GLM Coding Plan (via ZhipuAI API)
• Usage pattern: Normal developer assistant workload — single-user conversations, not batch or high-concurrency
• Standard retry/backoff: Yes, configured per API docs

Impact

• Paid service is effectively down during work hours
• Every user interaction requires model fallback (defeating the purpose of subscribing to GLM-5.2)
• The problem is degrading: more errors per hour as the day progresses
• Community reports confirm this is widespread (Reddit r/ZaiGLM: "GLM 5.2 on z.ai is getting hammered")

Request

1. Acknowledge that this is a capacity issue, not a per-account problem
2. Provide a timeline for capacity expansion
3. Explain what "Fair Usage Policy" limits actually apply and how users can stay within them
4. Compensate affected users for the unusable service days

Related

• This appears to be the same root cause as the GLM-5 launch overload (智谱 Feb 22 apology: "扩容节奏没有跟上")
• Reddit r/ZaiGLM: https://www.reddit.com/r/ZaiGLM/comments/1u6a7r6/glm_52_on_zai_is_getting_hammered_right_now/
• zai-org/GLM-5 I am unable to use my api #68: Similar API unavailability complaints

[dchecks]

I've just signed up and I'm experiencing the same thing.

yo                                                                                                                                                                                 
                                                                                                                                                                                   

HTTP 429: The service may be temporarily overloaded, please try again later                                                                                                        

                                                                                                                                                                                   
yo                                                                                                                                                                                 
                                                                                                                                                                                   

yo 🥝                                                                                                                                                                              

                                                                                                                                                                                   
hello                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                   

hey Dan 👋                                                                                                                                                                         

                                                                                                                                                                                   
What model are you using                                                                                                                                                           
                                                                                                                                                                                   

 run error: ⚠️ API rate limit reached. Please try again later. ```

[carter-smalls]

The rate limit error points to a provider-side failure, not a local code bug.

npx ai-doctor@latest --json

Runs provider health checks and flags timeout gaps so you can add retry logic before the next incident.

[dchecks]

The rate limit error points to a provider-side failure, not a local code bug.

npx ai-doctor@latest --json

Runs provider health checks and flags timeout gaps so you can add retry logic before the next incident.

Clearly malware.

[itanyplus]

Thanks for calling this out clearly. In the middle of a widespread rate-limit incident, a good-faith warning like this is honestly one of the most useful things other affected users can receive.

People are already losing time trying to distinguish provider-side 429s from local setup bugs; the last thing they need is to run an unrelated or suspicious command while debugging. Appreciate the heads-up.

[michaelmanly]

How’s it malware? Want me to publish it open source

[JasonAiassist]

This is still really bad - 429's for most of the day every day. does anyone know if s.ai are working on this issue? I paid for a Max plan but cannot use it

[iRonin]

I went with a Pro plan, then upgraded to Max and it's the same issue— like wtf are they charging for?... concurrency 1?...

Rate Limits clearly says: GLM-5.2 concurrency 10 -- is it 10 for all the users ffs? Someone should sue them.

[craftmaster1231]

I am on pro plan.
In Usage I'm far away from reaching 5h/week limits, but I can use only glm 4.7 via API without error 429 on almost every request.
Even in web interface Chats and Agents abort their requests.

[dexteon]

Has anyone come up with a solution? I'm hitting 429 errors in Hermes consistently.

[BAIGUANGMEI]

I faced the same problem. It is a really terrible experience.

[HakonJK]

Hitting 429 often with Hermes. Never had a problem with Claude Code. Z.ai say on their home page that general purpose agent systemts (like OpenClaw or Hermes) are more prone to 429 errors, especially during peak hours: https://docs.z.ai/devpack/tool/others#step-1-supported-tools .

[N39r19]

Same terrible problem, i get 429 on most of requests to z.ai

I use GLM 5.2 from z.ai and GLM 5.2 from opencode-go as fallback, and guess what?
I consumed only 14% of 5-h quota of z.ai vs 55% of opencode

I thought to go to Pro plan until found this issue, thought it would help with priority..

@itanyplus are you doing something with this problem? 5.2 is great, but we cant normally use it, almost all other models work normally