---
title: "How should an app handle OpenAI API rate limits when several workers retry at once?"  
description: "How should an app handle OpenAI API rate limits when several workers retry at once?"  
author: "Davide Romano"  
published: 2026-10-22  
updated: 2026-10-22  
canonical: https://www.mindstick.com/forum/162826/how-should-an-app-handle-openai-api-rate-limits-when-several-workers-retry-at-once  
category: "OpenAI API"  
tags: ["OpenAI API", "Rate Limits", "Backend development"]  
reading_time: 1 minute  

---

# How should an app handle OpenAI API rate limits when several workers retry at once?

I’m seeing occasional 429 responses from the OpenAI API when several background workers send requests at the same time. Retrying each failed request immediately seems like a good way to create a retry storm, but waiting too long can hold up the whole queue.

How are people handling **OpenAI API rate limits** in production? I’m especially interested in how you use retry timing, the `Retry-After` header, and shared retry logic when multiple workers are involved.


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Original Source: https://www.mindstick.com/forum/162826/how-should-an-app-handle-openai-api-rate-limits-when-several-workers-retry-at-once

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