---
page_type: error
code: 20500
message: "20500: Internal Server Error"
level: ERROR
---

## Error - 20500

### Internal Server Error

The Twilio API encountered an error when processing your request. This generally indicates an error in the server handling logic or a timeout in the API. We apologize for the inconvenience.

#### I'm seeing a lot of these

If you are seeing a consistent pattern of 500 server errors coming from the Twilio API, check our [status page](http://status.twilio.com/) for more details. If our status page has no information, [contact support](https://www.twilio.com/help/contact) with details about the requests that are failing, and we will investigate.

#### Is the request safe to retry?

GET and DELETE requests are always safe for you to retry as they are idempotent. Some POST requests are idempotent by nature - purchasing a specific phone number, or hanging up a call - and while these may return different HTTP status codes on each attempt, the end state of the system will be the same whether you make the request one time or ten.

Other POST requests - sending an SMS or triggering an outbound call - are not idempotent. If you get a 500 Server Error on these requests, and you retry the request, it is possible for a customer to receive multiple messages or calls from your application.