diff --git a/backend/onyx/connectors/zendesk/connector.py b/backend/onyx/connectors/zendesk/connector.py
index 05ab97986..17df88e76 100644
--- a/backend/onyx/connectors/zendesk/connector.py
+++ b/backend/onyx/connectors/zendesk/connector.py
@@ -40,6 +40,13 @@ class ZendeskClient:
         response = requests.get(
             f"{self.base_url}/{endpoint}", auth=self.auth, params=params
         )
+
+        if response.status_code == 429:
+            retry_after = response.headers.get("Retry-After")
+            if retry_after is not None:
+                # Sleep for the duration indicated by the Retry-After header
+                time.sleep(int(retry_after))
+
         response.raise_for_status()
         return response.json()
 
diff --git a/backend/onyx/seeding/load_docs.py b/backend/onyx/seeding/load_docs.py
index 980addf86..b629b6ac3 100644
--- a/backend/onyx/seeding/load_docs.py
+++ b/backend/onyx/seeding/load_docs.py
@@ -216,7 +216,7 @@ def seed_initial_documents(
     # Retries here because the index may take a few seconds to become ready
     # as we just sent over the Vespa schema and there is a slight delay
 
-    index_with_retries = retry_builder()(document_index.index)
+    index_with_retries = retry_builder(tries=15)(document_index.index)
     index_with_retries(chunks=chunks, fresh_index=cohere_enabled)
 
     # Mock a run for the UI even though it did not actually call out to anything
diff --git a/backend/onyx/utils/retry_wrapper.py b/backend/onyx/utils/retry_wrapper.py
index 1d62e7dc5..ef7107099 100644
--- a/backend/onyx/utils/retry_wrapper.py
+++ b/backend/onyx/utils/retry_wrapper.py
@@ -15,11 +15,12 @@ F = TypeVar("F", bound=Callable[..., Any])
 
 
 def retry_builder(
-    tries: int = 10,
+    tries: int = 20,
     delay: float = 0.1,
-    max_delay: float | None = None,
+    max_delay: float | None = 60,
     backoff: float = 2,
     jitter: tuple[float, float] | float = 1,
+    exceptions: type[Exception] | tuple[type[Exception], ...] = (Exception,),
 ) -> Callable[[F], F]:
     """Builds a generic wrapper/decorator for calls to external APIs that
     may fail due to rate limiting, flakes, or other reasons. Applies exponential
@@ -33,6 +34,7 @@ def retry_builder(
             backoff=backoff,
             jitter=jitter,
             logger=cast(Logger, logger),
+            exceptions=exceptions,
         )
         def wrapped_func(*args: list, **kwargs: dict[str, Any]) -> Any:
             return func(*args, **kwargs)