What is exponential backoff?

Definition

With exponential backoff, each failed attempt waits longer than the previous one before retrying. Adding jitter prevents many clients from retrying at exactly the same moment and recreating the overload.

Backoff must be bounded by maximum attempts, total time and cost. It is appropriate only for errors likely to be temporary; validation or authorization failures should normally stop immediately rather than enter a retry loop.

Acronyms and aliases

backoff retry variant

Frequently asked questions

Why does exponential backoff use longer delays?

Longer delays give an unhealthy service time to recover and reduce the chance that retries will keep it overloaded.

Should every agent error be retried?

No. Permanent, invalid or unauthorized requests should fail without retrying, while bounded retries may suit temporary network or service errors.

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