// Server error
503 Service Unavailable
The server is temporarily unable to handle the request, often because of overload or maintenance. Retry-After may indicate when to try again.
Common causes
- The service is overloaded.
- Planned maintenance pauses request handling.
- A required dependency is temporarily unavailable.
Troubleshooting
- Inspect service health and deployment status.
- Honor Retry-After and cap retries.
- Before retrying a payment POST, determine whether the first attempt completed or use supported idempotency controls.
HTTP example
POST /payments HTTP/1.1
Host: api.example.com
Content-Type: application/json
Idempotency-Key: example-payment-002
{"amount":4900,"currency":"EUR"}
HTTP/1.1 503 Service Unavailable
Retry-After: 120
Content-Type: application/json
{"code":"temporarily_unavailable"}Related status codes
// GET STARTED
Inspect the complete API response.
Use REST Test to send a request and review its status, headers, timing and body together.