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How to Handle Timeouts, Rate Limits, and Errors in the Decisions API

Use Retry-After or exponential backoff for documented Decisions API throttling and overload responses. Treat uncertain timeouts cautiously and validate actions against current state.
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For the Decisions API, handle documented overload and throttling responses by honoring Retry-After when it is present; otherwise use exponential backoff. Do not assume every timeout is safe to retry: the reviewed documentation does not establish a Decisions-specific timeout duration or guarantee for requests whose completion is uncertain.

Start by classifying the response

The Decisions API is documented as a beta endpoint at POST /v1/decisions. The guide describes a request containing a model, shared input, and typed questions, and identifies gpt-6-luna as the available model in that guide. Check the current Decisions API guide before relying on implementation details, since beta documentation can change.

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For each failed call, record the HTTP status, structured error code and message, any Retry-After header, and the relevant request context that is safe for your system to retain. Avoid logging API keys or sensitive input. Map invalid client requests separately from temporary service conditions so a malformed request is not blindly retried as if it were an outage.

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Handle documented throttling and overload responses

Response What it indicates Handling
429 slow_down OpenAI’s September 2, 2026 API update associates this with traffic increasing too quickly. If Retry-After is present, wait at least that long. If it is absent, use exponential backoff.
503 server_is_overloaded The same update associates this with temporary model overload. If Retry-After is present, wait at least that long. If it is absent, use exponential backoff.

These distinctions and retry instructions come from OpenAI’s API changelog. Treat the header as a minimum wait, not a suggestion to retry immediately. Exponential backoff increases the delay between successive attempts; add a limit on attempts or elapsed time in your application so a persistent failure does not create an endless retry loop.

The changelog’s guidance describes how to wait before retrying; it does not establish that every 429 or 503 is safe to repeat in every application. In particular, check whether your own workflow could execute an action more than once before automatically resubmitting.

Decide carefully what to do after a timeout

A client-side timeout means your application did not receive a response in time. It does not, by itself, establish whether the server completed the request. The reviewed official material does not state a Decisions-specific timeout threshold, response behavior for timeouts, or retry guarantee for an ambiguous completion.

  • Set a timeout appropriate to your application, but do not present it as an OpenAI-prescribed Decisions API value.
  • If the client cannot determine whether the request completed, avoid automatic resubmission when doing so could trigger duplicate downstream work.
  • Check the current endpoint reference for any endpoint-specific guidance before implementing an automatic retry policy for ambiguous timeouts.

The reviewed sources also do not provide a numerical Decisions API quota or a complete endpoint-specific error-code table. For validation, authentication, and other errors, consult the current endpoint guide rather than inferring behavior from the two documented transient cases.

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Protect actions that use a returned decision

A successful response can become stale while your application is waiting or while a user changes state. If your code turns a selected answer into an action, validate it against the latest application state immediately before execution. Skip the action if it was canceled or no longer fits that state.

Keep the API credential on your server. OpenAI’s integration guidance explicitly says, “Keep OPENAI_API_KEY on the server.” Do not expose it in browser or client-side application code. See the official voice integration guide for the server-side key instruction and the guidance to skip actions that were canceled or no longer fit current state.

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Account for data handling requirements

OpenAI’s data-controls guide states that Decisions API abuse-monitoring logs are retained for up to 30 days by default. Eligible customers can use Zero Data Retention, but that does not eliminate every data-handling exception: the guide says prompt caching may retain encrypted key/value tensors on local GPU machines, with a 24-hour expiration.

The same guide says the Decisions API is eligible for HIPAA use when an OpenAI Business Associate and Healthcare Addendum has been executed, subject to account configuration requirements. Confirm the applicable terms and configuration for your account before using the API with regulated data.

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