diff --git a/src/lib/__tests__/rate-limit-headers.test.ts b/src/lib/__tests__/rate-limit-headers.test.ts
index 51938a67c..248cd2aad 100644
--- a/src/lib/__tests__/rate-limit-headers.test.ts
+++ b/src/lib/__tests__/rate-limit-headers.test.ts
@@ -48,13 +48,16 @@ describe("rateLimitResponseHeaders", () => {
     expect(headers["Retry-After"]).toBe("1");
   });
 
-  it("never names a delay in the past", () => {
+  it("names at least a second even when the window already reads as expired", () => {
     const now = Date.UTC(2026, 0, 1, 12, 0, 0);
     const headers = rateLimitResponseHeaders(
       { limit: 10, remaining: 0, resetAt: now - 5_000 },
       now,
     );
-    expect(headers["Retry-After"]).toBe("0");
+    // `resetAt` is the database clock and `now` is this process's, so a row
+    // that still refuses can read as expired here. Zero would say "retry now"
+    // beside a refusal and turn the client into a hot loop.
+    expect(headers["Retry-After"]).toBe("1");
   });
 
   it("keeps X-RateLimit-Reset in the ISO form already on the wire", () => {
diff --git a/src/lib/rate-limit-context.ts b/src/lib/rate-limit-context.ts
index 75df1b2a3..fd1181233 100644
--- a/src/lib/rate-limit-context.ts
+++ b/src/lib/rate-limit-context.ts
@@ -80,9 +80,11 @@ export function capturedRateLimit(): RateLimitSnapshot | null {
  *
  * `Retry-After` is whole seconds and rounds UP, per RFC 9110 §10.2.3: a client
  * that waits the value it is given must find the window already rolled over,
- * which flooring cannot promise. It never goes below zero — a window that
- * expired between the verdict and the response says "retry now" rather than
- * naming a time in the past.
+ * which flooring cannot promise. It never goes below one second: `resetAt`
+ * comes from the database clock and the subtraction happens on the app
+ * process's, so a window can read as already expired here while the row still
+ * refuses; and zero on a refusal means "retry now", which contradicts the
+ * status it rides on and invites a hot loop.
  *
  * `X-RateLimit-Reset` keeps the ISO-8601 instant it has always carried. It is
  * the wrong convention for the header name and every other deployment uses
@@ -96,7 +98,7 @@ export function rateLimitResponseHeaders(
 ): Record<string, string> {
   return {
     "Retry-After": String(
-      Math.max(0, Math.ceil((snapshot.resetAt - now) / 1000)),
+      Math.max(1, Math.ceil((snapshot.resetAt - now) / 1000)),
     ),
     "X-RateLimit-Limit": String(snapshot.limit),
     "X-RateLimit-Remaining": String(snapshot.remaining),