diff --git a/changelog.d/1402-terrain-429-pause.md b/changelog.d/1402-terrain-429-pause.md
index fb7e14f10..05b18680b 100644
--- a/changelog.d/1402-terrain-429-pause.md
+++ b/changelog.d/1402-terrain-429-pause.md
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
 - The terrain proxy stops asking the upstream for a while after a 429
   (its Retry-After, at most 10 minutes, or 60 s) instead of retrying on every
-  page request (quanticsoul4772, #1402).
+  page request, and a Retry-After longer than its 10 s retry budget now ends
+  the retries at once instead of sleeping the budget out (quanticsoul4772,
+  #1402).
diff --git a/docs/CURRENT-STATE.md b/docs/CURRENT-STATE.md
index df37c6805..a8f3646c8 100644
--- a/docs/CURRENT-STATE.md
+++ b/docs/CURRENT-STATE.md
@@ -3078,11 +3078,14 @@ down | auth-failed` (plus the unchanged `missing-key`/`unsupported`) with
 >   usable per point, while an uncached absent height still returns 502 rather
 >   than becoming a fabricated ground value. A position the upstream answers
 >   with a null ellipsoid is reported as an absent height rather than a refresh
->   failure, and is left uncached so a later poll re-asks it. After a 429 that
+>   failure, and is left uncached so a later poll re-asks it. A `Retry-After`
+>   longer than the 10 s retry budget ends the retries at once. After a 429 that
 >   outlasts its retries, the proxy pauses upstream calls for the `Retry-After`
->   (60 seconds when none, at most 10 minutes): cached and stale points are still
->   served, uncached points get 502 and use the page's geoid fallback, and the
->   pause is logged once by the request that started it. Client geoid
+>   (60 seconds when none, at most 10 minutes). A request whose points are all
+>   cached, fresh or stale, is still served; a request with any uncached point
+>   gets 502 and the page uses its geoid fallback for that chunk. Each request
+>   that was waiting on the upstream when the 429 came back logs one warning;
+>   requests refused during the pause do not log. Client geoid
 >   fallbacks wait 60 seconds before retrying and self-heal to Re:Earth on the
 >   first later successful fetch. Smaller chunks reduce timeout risk; complete
 >   camera batches still wait for their sequential requests, and unresolved
diff --git a/server/providers/terrain.js b/server/providers/terrain.js
index b217cd900..35606308a 100644
--- a/server/providers/terrain.js
+++ b/server/providers/terrain.js
@@ -209,7 +209,8 @@ export function terrainHeightsProxy(options = {}) {
    *
    * The first try keeps its empirically required 30s timeout; network errors,
    * 429, and 5xx receive up to three jittered retries sharing a 10s added-time
-   * budget, with Retry-After honored within that bound.
+   * budget, with Retry-After honored within that bound; a longer Retry-After
+   * ends the retries at once so the 429 pause below starts without delay.
    *
    * A chunk that still fails yields nulls for its own positions rather than
    * rejecting: with several chunks per request, throwing would discard every
diff --git a/src/data/terrainHeightsProxy.js b/src/data/terrainHeightsProxy.js
index 562d4d7c1..f06ff3671 100644
--- a/src/data/terrainHeightsProxy.js
+++ b/src/data/terrainHeightsProxy.js
@@ -107,7 +107,10 @@ export function terrainRetryAfterMs(value, nowMs = Date.now()) {
 /**
  * Fetch one upstream chunk with jittered exponential backoff. Network errors,
  * 429, and 5xx retry; other HTTP failures and malformed successes fail fast.
- * Retry sleeps and retry attempts share a 10s budget after attempt one.
+ * Retry sleeps and retry attempts share a 10s budget after attempt one. A
+ * Retry-After longer than the budget left ends the retries at once: sleeping
+ * out the budget cannot reach the time the upstream asked for, and it would
+ * delay the caller's own back-off (the proxy's 429 pause) by up to 10 s.
  *
  * Dependencies are injectable for deterministic offline tests.
  * @param {Array<[number, number]>} points
@@ -168,6 +171,7 @@ export async function fetchTerrainChunkWithRetry(
       if (remaining <= 0) break;
 
       const retryAfterMs = terrainRetryAfterMs(error?.retryAfter, now());
+      if (retryAfterMs != null && retryAfterMs > remaining) break;
       const backoffMs = Math.round(
         350 * 2 ** attempt * (0.75 + random() * 0.5),
       );
diff --git a/src/data/terrainHeightsProxy.test.mjs b/src/data/terrainHeightsProxy.test.mjs
index 50e45b732..c9e143337 100644
--- a/src/data/terrainHeightsProxy.test.mjs
+++ b/src/data/terrainHeightsProxy.test.mjs
@@ -91,6 +91,36 @@ test('429 retry honors Retry-After before the next attempt', async () => {
   assert.equal(results[0].id, 'recovered');
 });
 
+test('a Retry-After longer than the retry budget ends the retries without sleeping', async () => {
+  let clock = 3_000_000;
+  let attempts = 0;
+  const sleeps = [];
+  await assert.rejects(
+    fetchTerrainChunkWithRetry([[1, 1]], {
+      now: () => clock,
+      random: () => 0.5,
+      makeSignal: () => undefined,
+      sleep: async (ms) => {
+        sleeps.push(ms);
+        clock += ms;
+      },
+      fetchImpl: async () => {
+        attempts += 1;
+        return {
+          ok: false,
+          status: 429,
+          headers: {
+            get: (name) => (name.toLowerCase() === 'retry-after' ? '30' : null),
+          },
+        };
+      },
+    }),
+    (error) => error.status === 429 && error.retryAfter === '30',
+  );
+  assert.equal(attempts, 1);
+  assert.deepEqual(sleeps, [], 'no sleep that cannot reach the Retry-After');
+});
+
 test('permanently failing upstream exhausts retries and returns 502 without fake results', async () => {
   let clock = 2_000_000;
   let attempts = 0;
diff --git a/src/tooling/environmentProviders.test.mjs b/src/tooling/environmentProviders.test.mjs
index 45940e00b..d2f827838 100644
--- a/src/tooling/environmentProviders.test.mjs
+++ b/src/tooling/environmentProviders.test.mjs
@@ -476,3 +476,91 @@ test('a far-off Retry-After pauses the terrain upstream for at most 10 minutes',
   t.mock.timers.setTime(pausedAt + 10 * 60_000 + 1);
   assert.equal((await request('/?points=3,4')).status, 200, 'pause over');
 });
+
+/** Drive mocked timers until `promise` settles; the retry budget is 10 s. */
+async function settleOnMockedTime(t, promise) {
+  let settled = false;
+  const tracked = promise.finally(() => {
+    settled = true;
+  });
+  for (let step = 0; step < 60 && !settled; step += 1) {
+    await new Promise((resolve) => setImmediate(resolve));
+    t.mock.timers.tick(1_000);
+  }
+  assert.ok(settled, 'the request settles within its retry budget');
+  return tracked;
+}
+
+test('during a terrain 429 pause fully cached points, even stale ones, are still served', async (t) => {
+  isolate(t);
+  t.mock.timers.enable({ apis: ['Date', 'setTimeout'], now: 1_000_000 });
+  let calls = 0;
+  let limited = false;
+  t.mock.method(globalThis, 'fetch', async () => {
+    calls += 1;
+    return limited
+      ? new Response('', { status: 429, headers: { 'retry-after': '300' } })
+      : Response.json({ results: [{ ellipsoid: 100 }] });
+  });
+  const request = install(terrainHeightsProxy());
+  assert.equal((await request('/?points=5,6')).status, 200);
+  // Past the 30-day TTL, so 5,6 is stale and would normally be refreshed.
+  t.mock.timers.setTime(Date.now() + 31 * 24 * 3600_000);
+  limited = true;
+  const first = await settleOnMockedTime(t, request('/?points=1,2'));
+  assert.equal(first.status, 502);
+  assert.equal(calls, 2, 'a Retry-After past the budget is not retried');
+  const stale = await request('/?points=5,6');
+  assert.equal(stale.status, 200);
+  assert.deepEqual(json(stale).results, [{ ellipsoid: 100 }]);
+  assert.equal((await request('/?points=5,6;7,8')).status, 502);
+  assert.equal(calls, 2, 'no upstream call during the pause');
+});
+
+test('a terrain upstream failure other than 429 does not pause later requests', async (t) => {
+  isolate(t);
+  t.mock.timers.enable({ apis: ['Date', 'setTimeout'], now: 1_000_000 });
+  let calls = 0;
+  t.mock.method(globalThis, 'fetch', async () => {
+    calls += 1;
+    return new Response('', { status: 503 });
+  });
+  const request = install(terrainHeightsProxy());
+  const first = await settleOnMockedTime(t, request('/?points=1,2'));
+  assert.equal(first.status, 502);
+  const afterFirst = calls;
+  const second = await settleOnMockedTime(t, request('/?points=3,4'));
+  assert.equal(second.status, 502);
+  assert.ok(calls > afterFirst, 'new points still go upstream after a 503');
+});
+
+test('a shorter concurrent Retry-After never cuts a terrain 429 pause short', async (t) => {
+  isolate(t);
+  t.mock.timers.enable({ apis: ['Date', 'setTimeout'], now: 1_000_000 });
+  let calls = 0;
+  t.mock.method(globalThis, 'fetch', async (raw) => {
+    calls += 1;
+    const points = new URL(raw).searchParams.get('points');
+    if (points.startsWith('0.'))
+      return Response.json({ results: [{ ellipsoid: 1 }] });
+    const retryAfter = points.startsWith('1.') ? '300' : '30';
+    return new Response('', {
+      status: 429,
+      headers: { 'retry-after': retryAfter },
+    });
+  });
+  const request = install(terrainHeightsProxy());
+  // Load the disk cache first so both requests below reach the upstream in
+  // order: the 300 s answer lands first, the 30 s answer after it.
+  assert.equal((await request('/?points=0,0')).status, 200);
+  const [long, short] = await settleOnMockedTime(
+    t,
+    Promise.all([request('/?points=1,2'), request('/?points=3,4')]),
+  );
+  assert.equal(long.status, 502);
+  assert.equal(short.status, 502);
+  const afterBoth = calls;
+  t.mock.timers.setTime(Date.now() + 120_000);
+  assert.equal((await request('/?points=5,6')).status, 502);
+  assert.equal(calls, afterBoth, 'still paused by the 300 s Retry-After');
+});