OpenAI requests_per_day exceeded
What you see when this happens
- 429 error message mentions 'daily' or 'per day' limit
- Requests fail consistently after a certain time each day (near your quota threshold)
- Sudden throughput cliff at same daily point regardless of RPM/TPM
- Free-tier accounts hit this frequently
Common causes
Free tier has strict daily caps; Tier 1 also has finite daily budgets.
Peak-hour burst can burn through the day's budget before evening.
Shared org means all workloads consume the same daily pool.
How to fix it
Upgrade tier
Higher tiers have significantly higher daily caps. Tier 2 ($50 + 7 days), Tier 3 ($100 + 7 days), and above have effectively unlimited daily quotas for most workloads.
Move background work to Batch API
Batch API has separate daily quotas. Non-real-time processing (summaries, indexing, offline analysis) belongs on Batch.
Distribute across multiple orgs
For teams with multiple products, splitting into orgs gives each its own daily budget.
Wait for UTC midnight reset
If tier upgrade isn't immediate, the quota resets at 00:00 UTC. Plan for this cutover in your traffic patterns.
How to prevent it
- Track daily consumption metrics; forecast when you'll hit the cap
- Alert at 60/80% of daily quota to give warning
- Consider tier progression cost vs. daily quota constraint
- Free tier is prototyping-only — move to paid before production
Related errors
Deeper reading
Frequently asked questions
When does the daily reset happen?
At 00:00 UTC. For US Pacific time users, that's 4pm PST / 5pm PDT — plan for the boundary crossing accordingly.
Is there a way to get temporary quota increase?
For emergency capacity needs, contact OpenAI sales at platform.openai.com/support. Enterprise contracts include flexible quota allocations.