diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 419c03e45..8527900d4 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,5 +1,11 @@
 # Changelog
 
+- Aircraft track backfill (`/api/opensky-track`, `/api/adsblol/trace`) now
+  answers 502 when the upstream body exceeds the 5 MB cap, instead of a 200
+  whose error body the client read as an empty track. The failure is cached
+  like other upstream errors, so retries inside the 60 s window do not spend
+  OpenSky credits (Raushankumar0720, #720, #722).
+
 - Saving a key from Provider Settings works again on Macs where Nix or
   Homebrew coreutils sit ahead of `/bin` on `PATH`. The credential hardener
   now spawns Apple's `/bin/chmod -N` by absolute path; GNU `chmod` has no `-N`,
diff --git a/server/providers/aircraft/tracks.js b/server/providers/aircraft/tracks.js
index d9f2a36d5..2c7b78a78 100644
--- a/server/providers/aircraft/tracks.js
+++ b/server/providers/aircraft/tracks.js
@@ -55,9 +55,9 @@ export function trackBackfillProxies() {
     } else {
       body = text;
     }
-    if (!tooLarge) {
-      cachePut(key, { at: Date.now(), status, body });
-    }
+    // Cache the 502 like any upstream error: /tracks/all costs OpenSky
+    // credits, so a retry inside the window must not re-download the body.
+    cachePut(key, { at: Date.now(), status, body });
     res.statusCode = status;
     res.setHeader('Content-Type', 'application/json; charset=utf-8');
     res.setHeader('Cache-Control', 'no-store');
diff --git a/src/tooling/liveProviders.test.mjs b/src/tooling/liveProviders.test.mjs
index de8681490..38953eff9 100644
--- a/src/tooling/liveProviders.test.mjs
+++ b/src/tooling/liveProviders.test.mjs
@@ -354,27 +354,17 @@ test('military cooldown bounds untrusted Retry-After and defaults server errors'
   }
 });
 
-test('track backfill proxy returns 502 and skips cache when upstream response exceeds body cap', async (t) => {
+test('track backfill proxy returns 502 on an oversized upstream body and caches it as an error', async (t) => {
   const tracks = install(providers.trackBackfillProxies(), true);
   let callCount = 0;
   t.mock.method(globalThis, 'fetch', async () => {
     callCount++;
-    if (callCount === 1) {
-      return {
-        ok: true,
-        status: 200,
-        headers: new Map(),
-        body: (async function* () {
-          yield Buffer.alloc(6 * 1024 * 1024, 'x');
-        })(),
-      };
-    }
     return {
       ok: true,
       status: 200,
       headers: new Map(),
       body: (async function* () {
-        yield Buffer.from(JSON.stringify({ path: [] }));
+        yield Buffer.alloc(6 * 1024 * 1024, 'x');
       })(),
     };
   });
@@ -385,9 +375,9 @@ test('track backfill proxy returns 502 and skips cache when upstream response ex
     error: 'Upstream track response too large',
   });
 
-  // Verify failure was NOT cached: second request invokes upstream again and succeeds
+  // Cached as a 502 (never a 200): a retry inside the window neither
+  // reads as an empty track nor spends OpenSky credits on another download.
   const res2 = await tracks('/api/opensky-track', '?icao24=def456');
-  assert.equal(res2.statusCode, 200);
-  assert.deepEqual(JSON.parse(res2.body), { path: [] });
-  assert.equal(callCount, 2);
+  assert.equal(res2.statusCode, 502);
+  assert.equal(callCount, 1);
 });