Card / payment declined

I got rate-limited after too many failed payment attempts — now what?

If you hit a cap after several failed card attempts, that's usually a rate limiter on failed attempts rather than a separate problem — each retry counts against the limit, so retrying immediately makes the next attempt less likely to succeed, not more. The underlying cause is almost always the card being declined by the processor in the first place, not your account being restricted.

The most effective move is to stop retrying and wait a few hours for the limiter to reset, then try once, ideally with a different card if you have one. A support ticket (support@openrouter.ai) is worth filing if the same card keeps failing after the wait.

If you'd rather not wait, crypto payment doesn't touch this retry limiter at all. ROZO Checkout accepts BTC Lightning, USDC, USDT and more against an OpenRouter link for a 1% fee. ROZO is independent and not affiliated with OpenRouter or Coinbase.

Steps to check

Stop retrying for a few hours — repeated attempts extend the lockout rather than clearing it.
Once the wait is over, try a single attempt with a different card if available.
If declines continue, open a support ticket rather than continuing to retry.
Use a crypto top-up if you can't wait.

Frequently asked questions

How long does the rate limit usually last?

It varies, but a few hours of not retrying is generally enough for it to clear — repeated attempts can extend it.

Does this affect my whole account or just this card?

It's typically tied to failed payment attempts generally, so switching cards may not bypass it if you keep retrying quickly.

Pay with ROZO Checkout instead

Skip the wrong-network / wrong-token mistakes: paste the payment link and pay with any major coin on any supported chain.

Go to Checkout Trace my payment