Claude Code Overloaded Error | Most Effective Solution

If you are seeing the “Overloaded” (often Error 529) message in Claude Code (the CLI tool) right now, it is almost certainly a server-side capacity issue at Anthropic, not a problem with your code.

As of late January 2026, there have been frequent reports of these outages during peak coding hours.

Here is the checklist to get back up and running:

1. The “Wait Rule” (Most Effective)

This error means the API is refusing your request because too many people are using it.

• The Fix: Stop spamming the retry button. Wait exactly 5–10 minutes.

• Why: If you keep retrying instantly, the server places you in a “cooldown” bucket, making the wait longer.

2. Clear Your Session Context

If you have been working in the same session for hours, your context window might be full, which makes your requests “heavier” and more likely to be rejected during high traffic.

• Command: Type /clear or /reset in the terminal.

• Alternative: Type /compact to summarize the history and free up tokens without losing the main thread.

• Hard Reset: Close the terminal window completely and open a fresh one.

Also Read : Why is Sabalenka Flag Not Shown 

3. Check the “Doctor”

Claude Code has a built-in diagnostic tool to check if your connection or authentication is broken.

• Command: Run claude doctor in your terminal.

• What to look for: It will tell you if your API key is invalid or if there is a network connectivity block.

4. Re-Authenticate

Sometimes the “Overloaded” error is actually a masked “Token Expired” error.

• Command: Run /logout followed by claude login (or claude auth login).

• Why: This forces the tool to grab a fresh session token from the server.

5. Verify System Status

Before you spend time troubleshooting your internet, check if the entire platform is down.

• Site: status.anthropic.com

• Look for: “API” or “Claude Code” status. If it says “Degraded Performance”, there is nothing you can do but wait.

Summary

If claude doctor says you are fine, do not reinstall the tool. You are just hitting a traffic spike. Go grab a coffee for 10 minutes and try again; it usually resolves itself.