401 Unauthorized and 429 Too Many Requests

What you'll see

Chrome, 401

Often a box titled Sign in saying the site requires a username and password, with Username and Password boxes. If the site sends no page of its own, Chrome shows This page isn't working, If the problem continues, contact the site owner. and HTTP ERROR 401.

Chrome, 429

This page isn't working with HTTP ERROR 429 at the bottom.

The site's own page

401 Unauthorized, 401 Authorization Required or This server could not verify that you are authorized to access the document requested. For a 429: 429 Too Many Requests or The user has sent too many requests in a given amount of time.

401 Unauthorized: if you're visiting a site

The site is working. It wants to know who you are before it shows this page, and it didn't get a sign-in it accepts.

1. Sign in again, typing the username and password slowly. Check Caps Lock is off.
2. A plain box asking for a username and password that you weren't expecting usually means the page is locked on purpose, for example a site still being built. Ask the business for the details, or for the right address.
3. Signed in, but sent back to the sign-in page every time? The site keeps you signed in with a cookie: check you haven't turned cookies off, then clear that one site's cookies and sign in again.

A 403 Forbidden is the 401's cousin: there, signing in won't help unless your account is allowed to see the page.

429 Too Many Requests: if you're visiting a site

The site counts how often it's asked for pages, and you've gone over its limit for now. Sites do this to slow down robots and protect themselves from overload. It isn't a ban.

1. Stop reloading. Each reload is one more request, so pressing it again and again keeps you over the limit.
2. Wait a few minutes, then try once. Some sites ask for longer, up to an hour or more.
3. Close other tabs open on the same site.
4. Turn off any VPN (an app that routes your connection through another computer). Many people share a VPN's address, and their requests can count against you.
5. On shared Wi-Fi (an office, a library, a school), everyone may share one address too. Try your phone on cellular data.

Still stuck the next day? Tell the business, with the time it happened. My setup gathers your browser and device details into one link you can send.

If it's your site

401 on your own pages

• A password lock left on after the site was built is the usual cause on a whole site. Your web host or website builder will have a setting for it, often called password protection.
• On one page, check that page's visibility or password setting in your builder.
• Site health tells you if your home page answers with an error, and shows the number, so you'll see a 401 there.

429 on your own pages

• A security plugin, firewall or your web host is limiting how often people can ask for pages, and the limit is set too tight for real visitors.
• It often shows up at a busy moment: a sale, a newsletter going out, a post being shared.
• Your web person can find which tool sent the 429 in its log, and raise the limit or allow the visitors it caught.

Link Check doesn't call a link dead when the other site answers 401 or 429. It lists it under "What we couldn't check", because it probably works for people: click it yourself to make sure.