HTTP 402 Payment Required — Reserved for Future Use

Overview

HTTP 402 Payment Required is officially reserved for future use but is used by some APIs to indicate that payment is needed to access a resource.

Key Details

• Originally reserved for digital payment systems that never materialized in HTTP/1.1
• No standard behavior defined — implementations vary by API
• Some APIs use it for expired subscriptions or exceeded free tier limits
• Stripe, Google APIs, and others use 402 for payment-related access blocks
• The W3C Web Payments API may eventually give this code official behavior

Common Causes

• API subscription expired or free tier quota exceeded
• Payment method on file declined or expired
• Resource behind a paywall requiring purchase
• SaaS product feature locked behind a higher pricing tier
• Trial period expired

Steps

1. 1Check your subscription status with the service provider
2. 2Update payment method if the card on file has expired
3. 3Review API usage against quota limits in the provider dashboard
4. 4Contact the API provider's billing support for account-specific issues
5. 5Check the response body — most APIs include details about what payment action is needed

Tags

More in 4xx Client Error

Frequently Asked Questions