Aider error
Aider: The API provider's servers are down or overloaded
The API provider's servers are down or overloaded.Status: By designLast verified 2 documented fixes2 sources
What it means
The provider returned an InternalServerError, ServiceUnavailableError or BadGatewayError. Aider maps all three to this message and retries automatically with exponential backoff.
Causes
- Provider outage or overload (aider's exception description).
- Anthropic overloaded_error responses; aider retries these automatically since v0.41.0.
How to fix it
- Fix 1.
Let aider retry. If the retries run out, try again later.
- Fix 2.
Upgrade: v0.41.0 added automatic retry on Anthropic overloaded_error, and later releases improved retry handling for API errors.
Terminalpython -m pip install --upgrade aider-chat
More Aider errors
All 17 Aider errorsThe LLM did not conform to the edit format.Status: WorkaroundSearchReplaceNoExactMatch: This SEARCH block failed to exactly match lines in {path}Status: WorkaroundModel gpt-3.5-turbo has hit a token limit!Status: WorkaroundModel foobar: Unknown context window size and costs, using sane defaults.Status: By designModel azure/gpt-4-turbo: Missing these environment variables:Status: By designaider: The term 'aider' is not recognized as a name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or executable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.Status: Workaroundaider-chat 0.23.0 requires somepackage==X.Y.Z, but you have somepackage U.W.V which is incompatible.Status: WorkaroundThe API provider is not able to authenticate you. Check your API key.Status: By design
Related reading
- Aider vs Claude Code in 2026: Git-First Open Source vs Subagent RuntimeAider vs Claude Code: git-first, model-agnostic Aider against the Claude Code runtime of subagents and hooks. Compare architecture, cost, governance and fit.
- Aider vs Claude Code: Open Source vs Commercial AI Coding CLIAider is open source and works with any model. Claude Code is Anthropic's commercial agent. Here is how they compare for TypeScript.
FAQ
What does "The API provider's servers are down or overloaded" mean in Aider?
The provider returned an InternalServerError, ServiceUnavailableError or BadGatewayError. Aider maps all three to this message and retries automatically with exponential backoff.
How do I fix "The API provider's servers are down or overloaded"?
There are 2 documented fixes. Start with the first: Let aider retry. If the retries run out, try again later.
Is this Aider error fixed?
Status: By design. Expected behavior, not a bug. The documented fixes change the setup that triggers it. Affected versions: All versions; automatic retry on Anthropic overloaded_error since v0.41.0.
Sources
Last verified against 2 sources: official docs, maintainer replies and release notes.
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