Bug: claude.ai cowork - "Server is temporarily limiting requests" recurs and blocks conversation continuation

Resolved 💬 3 comments Opened May 13, 2026 by seattlesands Closed May 17, 2026

Filing from Claude Code on behalf of a user-reported claude.ai web issue. Cowork-session conversations are repeatedly interrupted by a server-side rate-limit error that the user cannot work around from the client side.

Observed behavior

Inside a claude.ai cowork session, the following error is returned repeatedly when sending a message:

Something went wrong
Try sending your message again. If it keeps happening, share feedback so we can investigate.

API Error: Server is temporarily limiting requests (not your usage limit) - Rate limited
You can restart the conversation from an earlier message.

The "(not your usage limit)" parenthetical and "Rate limited" tag indicate server-side throttling rather than account-quota exhaustion. The error recurs across send attempts, blocking forward progress on the cowork conversation. The only client-side option offered is "restart the conversation from an earlier message," which does not address the underlying throttling.

Specific questions / asks

  1. Is the cowork-session pathway hitting a tighter server-side rate limit than the standard claude.ai chat surface? If yes, can the limit be raised, or surfaced in the UI with a Retry-After value so the client can back off intelligently?
  2. What triggers this throttle? Per-session message count, total tokens in the cowork context, concurrent cowork participants, or something else? Knowing the trigger lets users self-pace.
  3. Is a fix or mitigation tracked anywhere users can follow? A status-page entry or roadmap item would let affected users avoid re-filing.

Why this framing

Filing as a new bug rather than a status check: no prior public Anthropic engagement on cowork-session rate limiting has been independently verified at filing time. If a prior thread exists, happy to be redirected to it.

Context

  • Surface: claude.ai cowork sessions (not Claude Code CLI).
  • Filed via Claude Code /anthropic-escalation skill v1.1 because anthropics/claude-code is the only public Anthropic issue intake; no claude.ai-specific public repo exists.
  • Repro: error recurs on continued use of an active cowork session; exact send-count threshold and timing not yet captured.
  • Workaround attempted: re-sending the same message reproduces the error; "restart from an earlier message" does not change throttling state.

If this is the wrong repo for claude.ai cowork issues, please redirect.

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