509 Bandwidth Limit Exceeded

Shared hosting: the site has used up its bandwidth allowance.

509 at a glance

Code: 509
Name: Bandwidth Limit Exceeded
Class: 5xx Server error
Status: Non-standard used by Apache / cPanel hosting
Documented by: Apache / cPanel hosting
Cacheable by default: No by default. Caches only store responses with unrecognised status codes if explicit freshness (Cache-Control max-age) is given.

What 509 means

509 is not registered with IANA but has been used for years by Apache bandwidth-limiting modules and cPanel shared hosting when an account exceeds its monthly (or other period) bandwidth quota. The site stays down until the quota resets or is raised.

What typically causes a 509

A traffic spike, hotlinked images or video, or bots crawling heavily on a shared hosting plan.

Fix it on the server

Raise the plan's bandwidth, put a CDN in front to offload static files, and block hotlinking.

Fix it as a client or visitor

Nothing to do but wait or contact the site owner.

Example response

HTTP/1.1 509 Bandwidth Limit Exceeded
Content-Type: text/html