HTTP 402 Payment Required was reserved for future use in the HTTP specification. While not part of any standard payment protocol, some APIs and services use it to indicate that a subscription or payment is needed to access the resource.
Status
402 Payment RequiredExample
GET /premium/article/dns-explained HTTP/1.1
Host: www.example.com
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0
Accept: text/htmlHTTP/1.1 402 Payment Required
Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
Content-Length: 210
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>402 Payment Required</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Subscription Required</h1>
<p>This article is for subscribers only. Subscribe to continue reading.</p>
</body>
</html>How to Troubleshoot
Check your subscription status
Verify your account subscription is active and has not expired.
Review API pricing and quotas
Check if you have exceeded your API call quota or need to upgrade your plan.
Contact the service provider
If you believe the 402 is in error, contact the provider's support team.
Common Causes
API subscription or quota exceeded
highThe API requires a paid subscription or the free tier quota has been exhausted.
Paywall or premium content
mediumThe resource is behind a paywall and requires payment to access.
Related Status Codes
References
| Specification | Section |
|---|---|
| HTTP Semantics | RFC 9110 §15.5.3 |
Frequently Asked Questions
This reference was compiled from official RFCs, protocol specifications, and hands-on troubleshooting experience. AI tools were used primarily for formatting and organizing the content on the page.