n. / Cost and performance
Retry with backoff
Definition
Retry with backoff means trying a failed call again after waiting, and waiting longer after each failure, often with a little random jitter. It handles temporary errors without hammering a service that is struggling.
In more detail
Retry only errors that can succeed later, such as timeouts, rate limits and server errors, and set a maximum number of attempts. Never retry blindly on actions that are not safe to repeat, like creating a payment, unless the call carries an idempotency key. Record each attempt in the trace so hidden retries do not hide real cost and delay.
Example
A call fails with 503, waits 1 s, fails again, waits 2 s, then succeeds on the third try. The trace shows one span with two retry events.
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