CURLINFO\_RETRY\_AFTER(3) Library Functions Manual CURLINFO\_RETRY\_AFTER(3)

# [NAME](#NAME)

CURLINFO\_RETRY\_AFTER - returns the Retry-After retry delay

# [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS)

```
#include <curl/curl.h>
CURLcode curl_easy_getinfo(CURL *handle, CURLINFO_RETRY_AFTER,


                           curl_off_t *retry);
```

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

Pass a pointer to a curl\_off\_t variable to receive the number of seconds the HTTP server suggests the client should wait until the next request is issued. The information from the "Retry-After:" header.

While the HTTP header might contain a fixed date string, the [*CURLINFO\_RETRY\_AFTER(3)*](/man/os/curl/CURLINFO_RETRY_AFTER.3) always returns the number of seconds to wait - or zero if there was no header or the header could not be parsed.

This option used to return a negative wait time if the server provided a date in the past. Since 8.12.0, a negative wait time is returned as zero. In any case we recommend checking that the wait time is within an acceptable range for your circumstance.

# [DEFAULT](#DEFAULT)

Zero if there was no header.

# [PROTOCOLS](#PROTOCOLS)

This functionality affects all supported protocols

# [EXAMPLE](#EXAMPLE)

```
int main(void)
{


  CURL *curl = curl_easy_init();


  if(curl) {


    CURLcode result;


    curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_URL, "https://example.com");


    result = curl_easy_perform(curl);


    if(result == CURLE_OK) {


      curl_off_t wait = 0;


      curl_easy_getinfo(curl, CURLINFO_RETRY_AFTER, &wait);


      if(wait)


        printf("Wait for %" CURL_FORMAT_CURL_OFF_T " seconds\n", wait);


    }


    curl_easy_cleanup(curl);


  }
}
```

# [AVAILABILITY](#AVAILABILITY)

Added in curl 7.66.0

# [RETURN VALUE](#RETURN_VALUE)

[*curl\_easy\_getinfo(3)*](/man/os/curl/curl_easy_getinfo.3) returns a CURLcode indicating success or error.

CURLE\_OK (0) means everything was OK, non-zero means an error occurred, see [*libcurl-errors(3)*](/man/os/curl/libcurl-errors.3).

# [SEE ALSO](#SEE_ALSO)

[**CURLOPT\_HEADERFUNCTION**(3)](/man/os/curl/CURLOPT_HEADERFUNCTION.3), [**CURLOPT\_STDERR**(3)](/man/os/curl/CURLOPT_STDERR.3), [**curl\_easy\_header**(3)](/man/os/curl/curl_easy_header.3)

2026-10-01 libcurl

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Document: CURLINFO_RETRY_AFTER(3) from curl 8.22.0-r4 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://github.com/curl/curl.git