Planned Changes to the API

Rate Limiting Response Code Changing From 503 to 429

Beginning September 14, 2026, BambooHR API requests that exceed a rate limit will return HTTP 429 (Too Many Requests) instead of HTTP 503 (Service Unavailable). This may require a change to your integration.

HTTP 429 is the standard response for rate limiting, and it makes it easier for your integration to tell the difference between being rate limited and the BambooHR API being temporarily unavailable.

What you need to do

Review your integration's error-handling logic before then. If it only retries or backs off when it sees a 503, that logic will no longer run for rate-limited requests.

When your integration receives a 429:

• Every rate-limited response includes a Retry-After header. Honor it before sending more requests.
• Don't treat the response as a sign that the BambooHR API is unavailable.

What isn't changing

Rate limits stay the same. Only the status code is changing. HTTP 503 will still be returned when the BambooHR API is temporarily unavailable, it just no longer indicates rate limiting.