# exponential-backoff

> A utility that allows retrying a function with an exponential delay between attempts.

Latest version **3.1.3** (published 2025-10-10) · Apache-2.0 license · 0 weekly downloads

## Install

```sh
npm install exponential-backoff
pnpm add exponential-backoff
yarn add exponential-backoff
bun add exponential-backoff
```

## Health

**Score 60/100 (C)** — status: stable.

Positive: has types; no vulnerabilities; has provenance; high quality score.

Warnings: low downloads; no esm support.

## Facts

| | |
|---|---|
| Version | 3.1.3 |
| Published | 2025-10-10 |
| First published | 2018-07-06 |
| Weekly downloads | 0 |
| License | Apache-2.0 |
| TypeScript types | bundled |
| Module format | CommonJS |
| Dependencies | 0 |
| Unpacked size | 53.9 KB |
| Known vulnerabilities | 0 |
| Install scripts | no |
| Provenance | attested (GitHub Actions) |
| GitHub stars | 408 |
| Author | Sami Sayegh |
| Maintainers | aboissinot, coveo-organization, coveoit, olamothe, sssayegh, ylakhdar, ndlr, npmcoveo, pixhel, mmitiche, nlegros, sallain, msrioux, talao-coveo, oa-npmcoveo |
| Keywords | exponential, backoff, retry |

## Links

- npm: https://www.npmjs.com/package/exponential-backoff
- Repository: https://github.com/coveooss/exponential-backoff
- Homepage: https://github.com/coveooss/exponential-backoff#readme
- Issues: https://github.com/coveooss/exponential-backoff/issues
- npm.io page: https://npm.io/package/exponential-backoff

## Recent versions

- 3.1.3 (latest) — 2025-10-10
- 3.1.2 — 2025-02-06
- 3.1.1 — 2023-02-20
- 3.1.0 — 2020-08-06
- 3.0.1 — 2020-06-06
- 3.0.0 — 2020-04-05
- 2.2.1 — 2020-03-20
- 2.2.0 — 2019-11-04
- 2.1.1 — 2019-03-23
- 2.1.0 — 2019-02-16
- 2.0.0 — 2019-02-09
- 1.2.0 — 2019-02-07
- 1.0.7 — 2018-07-09
- 1.0.6 — 2018-07-08
- 1.0.5 — 2018-07-06
- … 3 more at https://npm.io/package/exponential-backoff/versions

## README

# exponential-backoff

A utility that allows retrying a function with an exponential delay between attempts.

## Installation

```
npm i exponential-backoff
```

## Usage

The `backOff<T>` function takes a promise-returning function to retry, and an optional `BackOffOptions` object. It returns a `Promise<T>`.

```ts
function backOff<T>(
  request: () => Promise<T>,
  options?: BackOffOptions
): Promise<T>;
```

Here is an example retrying a function that calls a hypothetical weather endpoint:

```js
import { backOff } from "exponential-backoff";

function getWeather() {
  return fetch("weather-endpoint");
}

async function main() {
  try {
    const response = await backOff(() => getWeather());
    // process response
  } catch (e) {
    // handle error
  }
}

main();
```

Migrating across major versions? Here are our [breaking changes](https://github.com/coveo/exponential-backoff/tree/master/doc/migration-guide.md).

### `BackOffOptions`

- `delayFirstAttempt?: boolean`

  Decides whether the `startingDelay` should be applied before the first call. If `false`, the first call will occur without a delay.

  Default value is `false`.

- `jitter?: JitterType | string`

  Decides whether a [jitter](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/architecture/exponential-backoff-and-jitter/) should be applied to the delay. Possible values are `full` and `none`.

  Default value is `none`.

- `maxDelay?: number`

  The maximum delay, in milliseconds, between two consecutive attempts.

  Default value is `Infinity`.

- `numOfAttempts?: number`

  The maximum number of times to attempt the function.

  Default value is `10`.

  Minimum value is `1`.

- `retry?: (e: any, attemptNumber: number) => boolean | Promise<boolean>`

  The `retry` function can be used to run logic after every failed attempt (e.g. logging a message, assessing the last error, etc.). It is called with the last error and the upcoming attempt number. Returning `true` will retry the function as long as the `numOfAttempts` has not been exceeded. Returning `false` will end the execution.

  Default value is a function that always returns `true`.

- `startingDelay?: number`

  The delay, in milliseconds, before executing the function for the first time.

  Default value is `100` ms.

- `timeMultiple?: number`

  The `startingDelay` is multiplied by the `timeMultiple` to increase the delay between reattempts.

  Default value is `2`.

---
_Source: https://npm.io/package/exponential-backoff · Machine-readable twin of the npm.io package page. Health data is recomputed on every publish._