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API Error 500 (internal server error)

A server-side failure on the API, usually transient but sometimes build-specific.

603 issues · 11 open · 592 resolved (98%) · first seen May 23, 2025

First response · service

What to do now

Most likely: The server failed while processing an otherwise accepted request.

  1. Retry once after a short delay and check the official Claude status page.
  2. If one conversation repeatedly fails, reproduce in a new short session.
  3. Preserve the request ID and timestamp when the failure persists.

These are conservative triage steps, not an official Anthropic fix. Use the issue and workaround evidence below before making a destructive configuration change.

Is this getting better or worse?

This class of problem is converging. 39 new reports in the last 90 days vs 254 in the 90 before — -85%. The open backlog peaked at 64 in 2026-04 and sits at 11 today.

0 16 32 48 64 2025-052025-102026-032026-08
2025-05 — First reports2026-02 — Most new reports (177)2026-04 — Peak backlog (64 open)

Derived by counting each matching issue from its creation date until it closed. First-party computation over the anthropics/claude-code tracker — the trend is not published anywhere upstream.

Which builds report this

394 of these reports name the Claude Code build they were running, spanning 88 releases. Heaviest reporters:

Report volume, not a defect count: an issue can mention a build without that build having caused the failure. Versions come from the version string in the bug-report template, matched against real published tags.

Do these get fixed?

Median time to close is 4 days across 592 closures. Of the 592 closures with a recorded reason, 26% were closed as completed and 439 as not-planned or duplicate. The most recent completed fix landed in 2026-08.

Workarounds reported by the community

26 of these issues post a workaround someone says worked. The highest-engagement ones:

[Bug] Anthropic API Error: Internal Server Error (500)
This error appears to occur with Sonnet. I was able to work around it by using Haiku or Opus with the /model command.
Found in the thread of #11827 · resolved
[BUG] API Error: 500
npx @anthropic-ai/claude-code@2.1.14 Works as a workaround. (NPX doesnt override your current installation).
Found in the thread of #20177 · resolved
[BUG] Rate limit 429 errors despite dashboard showing available quota - Two Max accounts, documented inconsistencies
….3% , meaning ~20x token inflation per turn. After applying workarounds it stabilized at 89-99% . Full analysis with per-request measured data, safe workarounds, and community references (including [cc-cache-fix](
Found in the thread of #22876 · still open
[BUG] Claude Code Won't Authenticate
+1 - There is a workaround to get the token. Instead of letting the link automatically open when typing /login, copy and paste the link manually onto your browser. However, when you paste the token generated it does not…
Found in the thread of #44719 · resolved
[Bug] Anthropic API Error: Internal Server Error (500)
npx @anthropic-ai/claude-code@2.1.14 Works as a workaround. NPX doesnt override your current installation.
Found in the thread of #20176 · resolved

Excerpts are quoted from the linked issue so you can judge relevance before opening it. Threads that only ask for a workaround, or report that there is none, are excluded. These are community suggestions, not official guidance from Anthropic — read the full thread before applying one.

Matching issues 1–100

Ranked by community engagement (reactions weighted over comments). Listing the top 300 of 603 matches; the statistics above cover all 603.

Related aggregations

  1. API Error 400 (invalid_request_error)

    2,591 issues

  2. API Error 401 (authentication_error)

    441 issues

  3. API Error 429 (rate_limit_error)

    690 issues

  4. API Error 529 (overloaded_error)

    254 issues

  5. API Error 403 (permission_error)

    235 issues

  6. API Error 413 (request_too_large)

    38 issues