What to Do When an AI API Returns 429, 401, or 500: Retry, Fallback, and Circuit Breaker Practices for Three Error Types
Author’s note: This article explains the causes of AI API 429, 401, and 500 errors and how to handle them. It covers which errors to retry, which require configuration fixes, and when to use exponential backoff, multi-model fallback, and circuit breakers. If you’ve worked with Large Language Models in production, you may have seen a…