All HTTP status codes

HTTP 402 Payment Required

Client Error

Reserved originally for digital payments; today used by some APIs to signal exceeded quotas, expired subscriptions, or billing problems.

Defined in RFC 9110

Common causes

  • API plan limits exhausted or subscription lapsed

How to fix it

  1. Check the provider's billing/quota dashboard

  2. Handle it like a retryable-after-upgrade condition in clients

Related status codes

403 Forbidden

The server understood the request and refuses to authorize it. Unlike 401, re-authenticating won't help — the identity is known but lacks permission.

429 Too Many Requests

The client exceeded the rate limit. The Retry-After header (when present) says how long to back off.

Want to explore status codes interactively? Try the free HTTP Status Code Reference — search, categories and example responses, right in your browser.