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402
Client Error

402 Payment Required

402 Payment Required — code reserved for future use, but currently used by some APIs to signal "payment needed".

Definition (RFC 9110)

HTTP status code 402 402 Payment Required is defined in RFC 9110 (HTTP Semantics), Section 15.5.3 — the current authoritative specification for HTTP semantics, published June 2022, which obsoletes the older RFC 7231 and RFC 2616.

Description

402 Payment Required was originally reserved for future use in digital payment schemes, but has since been adopted by many APIs and platforms to indicate that the user has exceeded a free tier or needs to upgrade their plan to access the resource.

Common in SaaS platforms, API gateways with usage limits, and premium content systems. The response typically includes information about how to make a payment or upgrade.

Common Causes

API quota exceeded (Stripe, GitHub, Cloudflare) Subscription expired, payment failed Paid feature requires plan upgrade

How to Fix

Read the response body — the API usually specifies exactly what needs to be paid. Check subscription status in the service's billing panel. Update payment method or smart card on file.

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Related Status Codes

400
400 Bad Request
The server cannot process the request due to malformed syntax.
 401
401 Unauthorized
Authentication is required and has failed or not been provided.
 403
403 Forbidden
The server understood the request but refuses to authorize it.
 404
404 Not Found
404 Not Found — the requested URL does not exist on the server. The most common client-error; signals search engines to remove the page from index.
 405
405 Method Not Allowed
The HTTP method used is not allowed for this resource.
 406
406 Not Acceptable
The server cannot produce a response matching the client's Accept headers.

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Create Account API Documentation