Exceeding flood control returns HTTP 429; parameters.retry_after holds the number of seconds left to wait before the request can be repeated.

Telegram Bot API · POST /{bot_token}/sendMessage · HTTP 429

Status: 🔵 official · first seen 2026-10-24

What to do

  1. Retry with exponential backoff from 1000 ms × 2, cap 60000 ms, ≤ 5 attempts, with jitter.

Dimensions

env: prod · plan: any · region: any · account_state: any

Evidence

official doc: https://core.telegram.org/bots/api#responseparameters

Observations: none from reporters yet.

Machine access

curl -s https://apifacts.dev/v0/check \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -d '{"target":{"method":"POST","url":"https://api.telegram.org/{bot_token}/sendMessage"},"error":{"status":429}}'

YAML: facts/telegram/flood-control-429-retry-after.yaml

Data: CC BY 4.0 · apifacts registry · This page is generated; edit the YAML, not the page.