diff --git a/src/main/java/org/kohsuke/github/GitHub.java b/src/main/java/org/kohsuke/github/GitHub.java
index c56022749..8217af5cd 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/kohsuke/github/GitHub.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/kohsuke/github/GitHub.java
@@ -75,6 +75,8 @@ public class GitHub {
 
     private final String apiUrl;
 
+    /*package*/ final RateLimitHandler rateLimitHandler;
+
     private HttpConnector connector = HttpConnector.DEFAULT;
 
     /**
@@ -113,7 +115,7 @@ public class GitHub {
      * @param connector
      *      HttpConnector to use. Pass null to use default connector.
      */
-    /* package */ GitHub(String apiUrl, String login, String oauthAccessToken, String password, HttpConnector connector) throws IOException {
+    /* package */ GitHub(String apiUrl, String login, String oauthAccessToken, String password, HttpConnector connector, RateLimitHandler rateLimitHandler) throws IOException {
         if (apiUrl.endsWith("/")) apiUrl = apiUrl.substring(0, apiUrl.length()-1); // normalize
         this.apiUrl = apiUrl;
         if (null != connector) this.connector = connector;
@@ -132,6 +134,7 @@ public class GitHub {
         if (login==null && encodedAuthorization!=null)
             login = getMyself().getLogin();
         this.login = login;
+        this.rateLimitHandler = rateLimitHandler;
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/kohsuke/github/GitHubBuilder.java b/src/main/java/org/kohsuke/github/GitHubBuilder.java
index e794fb14c..f35c76502 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/kohsuke/github/GitHubBuilder.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/kohsuke/github/GitHubBuilder.java
@@ -25,6 +25,8 @@ public class GitHubBuilder {
     
     private HttpConnector connector;
 
+    private RateLimitHandler rateLimitHandler = RateLimitHandler.WAIT;
+
     public GitHubBuilder() {
     }
 
@@ -155,6 +157,10 @@ public class GitHubBuilder {
         this.connector = connector;
         return this;
     }
+    public GitHubBuilder withRateLimitHandler(RateLimitHandler handler) {
+        this.rateLimitHandler = handler;
+        return this;
+    }
 
     /**
      * Configures {@linkplain #withConnector(HttpConnector) connector}
@@ -170,6 +176,6 @@ public class GitHubBuilder {
     }
 
     public GitHub build() throws IOException {
-        return new GitHub(endpoint, user, oauthToken, password, connector);
+        return new GitHub(endpoint, user, oauthToken, password, connector, rateLimitHandler);
     }
 }
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/kohsuke/github/RateLimitHandler.java b/src/main/java/org/kohsuke/github/RateLimitHandler.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b00624ce2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/java/org/kohsuke/github/RateLimitHandler.java
@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+package org.kohsuke.github;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.InterruptedIOException;
+import java.net.HttpURLConnection;
+
+/**
+ * Pluggable strategy to determine what to do when the API rate limit is reached.
+ *
+ * @author Kohsuke Kawaguchi
+ * @see GitHubBuilder#withRateLimitHandler(RateLimitHandler)
+ */
+public abstract class RateLimitHandler {
+    /**
+     * Called when the library encounters HTTP error indicating that the API rate limit is reached.
+     *
+     * <p>
+     * Any exception thrown from this method will cause the request to fail, and the caller of github-api
+     * will receive an exception. If this method returns normally, another request will be attempted.
+     * For that to make sense, the implementation needs to wait for some time.
+     *
+     * @see <a href="https://developer.github.com/v3/#rate-limiting">API documentation from GitHub</a>
+     * @param e
+     *      Exception from Java I/O layer. If you decide to fail the processing, you can throw
+     *      this exception (or wrap this exception into another exception and throw it.)
+     * @param uc
+     *      Connection that resulted in an error. Useful for accessing other response headers.
+     */
+    public abstract void onError(IOException e, HttpURLConnection uc) throws IOException;
+
+    /**
+     * Block until the API rate limit is reset. Useful for long-running batch processing.
+     */
+    public static final RateLimitHandler WAIT = new RateLimitHandler() {
+        @Override
+        public void onError(IOException e, HttpURLConnection uc) throws IOException {
+            try {
+                Thread.sleep(parseWaitTime(uc));
+            } catch (InterruptedException _) {
+                throw (InterruptedIOException)new InterruptedIOException().initCause(e);
+            }
+        }
+
+        private long parseWaitTime(HttpURLConnection uc) {
+            String v = uc.getHeaderField("X-RateLimit-Reset");
+            if (v==null)    return 10000;   // can't tell
+
+            return Math.max(10000, Long.parseLong(v)*1000 - System.currentTimeMillis());
+        }
+    };
+
+    /**
+     * Fail immediately.
+     */
+    public static final RateLimitHandler FAIL = new RateLimitHandler() {
+        @Override
+        public void onError(IOException e, HttpURLConnection uc) throws IOException {
+            throw (IOException)new IOException("API rate limit reached").initCause(e);
+        }
+    };
+}
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/kohsuke/github/Requester.java b/src/main/java/org/kohsuke/github/Requester.java
index e2b0362a4..896bbd605 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/kohsuke/github/Requester.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/kohsuke/github/Requester.java
@@ -417,18 +417,11 @@ class Requester {
     }
 
     /**
-     * If the error is because of the API limit, wait 10 sec and return normally.
-     * Otherwise throw an exception reporting an error.
+     * Handle API error by either throwing it or by returning normally to retry.
      */
     /*package*/ void handleApiError(IOException e, HttpURLConnection uc) throws IOException {
         if ("0".equals(uc.getHeaderField("X-RateLimit-Remaining"))) {
-            // API limit reached. wait 10 secs and return normally
-            try {
-                Thread.sleep(10000);
-                return;
-            } catch (InterruptedException _) {
-                throw (InterruptedIOException)new InterruptedIOException().initCause(e);
-            }
+            root.rateLimitHandler.onError(e,uc);
         }
 
         if (e instanceof FileNotFoundException)