API-005 🔌 API

API Service Unavailable

The API service is temporarily unable to process requests because the service is unavailable, overloaded, or undergoing maintenance.

Meaning

The API service is temporarily unable to process requests because the service is unavailable, overloaded, or undergoing maintenance.

Common causes

  • API server outage
  • Scheduled maintenance
  • Server overload
  • Network connectivity problems
  • Upstream service failure
  • Temporary infrastructure issue

⚡ Quick fix

  1. Retry the request after a short delay
  2. Check the API provider's status page
  3. Implement retry with exponential backoff
  4. Verify network connectivity

Detailed fix by platform

JavaScript

  1. Implement exponential backoff for temporary failures
  2. Handle 503 responses gracefully
  3. Avoid aggressive retry loops

PHP

  1. Add controlled retry logic
  2. Log temporary API failures
  3. Use timeouts and backoff between retries

API

  1. Check the provider status page
  2. Review service health and availability
  3. Use a fallback service when appropriate

How to diagnose

  1. Check the API response status —
  2. Check the provider's status page —
  3. Test network connectivity —
  4. Review API response headers —
  5. Check server and application logs —

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