diff --git a/python/python/lancedb/embeddings/base.py b/python/python/lancedb/embeddings/base.py
index 96ca6556c..c11914fab 100644
--- a/python/python/lancedb/embeddings/base.py
+++ b/python/python/lancedb/embeddings/base.py
@@ -38,9 +38,11 @@ class EmbeddingFunction(BaseModel, ABC):
     3. ndims() which returns the number of dimensions of the vector column
     """
 
-    max_retries: int = (
-        7  # Setting 0 disables retires. Maybe this should not be enabled by default,
-    )
+    # Maximum number of retries for transient errors (rate limits, 5xx responses,
+    # connection errors, ...), with exponential backoff capped at 60 seconds between
+    # attempts. Permanent errors (HTTP 4xx other than 408/409/429) are never retried.
+    # Setting 0 disables retries.
+    max_retries: int = 7
     _ndims: int = PrivateAttr()
     _original_args: dict = PrivateAttr()
 
diff --git a/python/python/lancedb/embeddings/utils.py b/python/python/lancedb/embeddings/utils.py
index fb2a94ecb..ff8fc6a18 100644
--- a/python/python/lancedb/embeddings/utils.py
+++ b/python/python/lancedb/embeddings/utils.py
@@ -241,15 +241,30 @@ def retry_with_exponential_backoff(
     exponential_base: float = 2,
     jitter: bool = True,
     max_retries: int = 7,
+    max_delay: float = 60,
 ):
     """Retry a function with exponential backoff.
 
+    Only errors that may succeed when repeated are retried. Errors that carry an
+    HTTP status code are retried when the status is 408, 409, 429 or >= 500; any
+    other 4xx status (for example 400, 401, 403, 404 or 422) is a permanent failure
+    that is raised immediately. Errors without a recognisable status code (for
+    example connection errors, timeouts, or exceptions raised by a custom embedding
+    function) are retried.
+
+    The delay before the n-th retry is ``initial_delay * exponential_base ** n``,
+    never more than ``max_delay``. With ``jitter`` enabled, a random amount of up to
+    half of that delay is removed ("equal jitter"), so the actual wait is always in
+    the range ``[delay / 2, delay]``.
+
     Args:
         func (function): The function to be retried.
         initial_delay (float): Initial delay in seconds (default is 1).
         exponential_base (float): The base for exponential backoff (default is 2).
         jitter (bool): Whether to add jitter to the delay (default is True).
         max_retries (int): Maximum number of retries (default is 7).
+        max_delay (float): Maximum delay between two attempts, in seconds
+            (default is 60).
 
     Returns:
         function: The decorated function.
@@ -265,13 +280,12 @@ def retry_with_exponential_backoff(
             try:
                 return func(*args, **kwargs)
 
-            # Currently retrying on all exceptions as there is no way to know the
-            # format of the error msgs used by different APIs. We'll log the error
-            # and say that it is assumed that if this portion errors out, it's due
-            # to rate limit but the user should check the error message to be sure.
+            # Errors are retried unless they are known to be permanent (see
+            # `_is_non_retryable_error`). Custom embedding functions can raise
+            # arbitrary exceptions, so unknown errors are assumed to be transient.
             except Exception as e:  # noqa: PERF203
-                # Don't retry on authentication errors (e.g., OpenAI 401)
-                # These are permanent failures that won't be fixed by retrying
+                # Don't retry permanent failures (e.g., OpenAI 401 or 404). They
+                # won't be fixed by retrying and would only delay the real error.
                 if _is_non_retryable_error(e):
                     raise
 
@@ -280,24 +294,72 @@ def retry_with_exponential_backoff(
                 if num_retries > max_retries:
                     raise Exception(
                         f"Maximum number of retries ({max_retries}) exceeded.", e
-                    )
+                    ) from e
 
-                delay *= exponential_base * (1 + jitter * random.random())
+                delay = min(delay * exponential_base, max_delay)
+                sleep_for = delay
+                if jitter:
+                    sleep_for = delay / 2 + random.random() * delay / 2
                 logging.warning(
                     "Error occurred: %s \n Retrying in %s seconds (retry %s of %s) \n",
                     e,
-                    delay,
+                    sleep_for,
                     num_retries,
                     max_retries,
                 )
-                time.sleep(delay)
+                time.sleep(sleep_for)
 
     return wrapper
 
 
+# HTTP statuses in the 4xx range that are worth retrying: request timeout,
+# conflict (the OpenAI SDK treats it as transient) and rate limiting.
+_RETRYABLE_CLIENT_STATUSES = (408, 409, 429)
+
+# AWS error codes that are reported with a 4xx status but are transient.
+_RETRYABLE_AWS_ERROR_CODES = (
+    "Throttl",
+    "TooManyRequests",
+    "RequestLimitExceeded",
+    "ProvisionedThroughputExceeded",
+    "ModelNotReady",
+    "ModelTimeout",
+)
+
+
+def _get_http_status(error: Exception):
+    """Best-effort extraction of an HTTP status code from an exception.
+
+    Provider SDKs expose it in different ways: ``status_code`` (openai, cohere),
+    ``http_status`` (voyageai), ``response.status_code`` (requests, httpx),
+    ``code`` (google-api-core, urllib) or ``response["ResponseMetadata"]``
+    (botocore). Returns None if no status can be found.
+    """
+    candidates = [
+        getattr(error, "status_code", None),
+        getattr(error, "http_status", None),
+    ]
+    response = getattr(error, "response", None)
+    if isinstance(response, dict):
+        candidates.append(response.get("ResponseMetadata", {}).get("HTTPStatusCode"))
+    else:
+        candidates.append(getattr(response, "status_code", None))
+    candidates.append(getattr(error, "code", None))
+
+    for status in candidates:
+        if isinstance(status, int) and not isinstance(status, bool):
+            if 100 <= status <= 599:
+                return status
+    return None
+
+
 def _is_non_retryable_error(error: Exception) -> bool:
     """Check if an error should not be retried.
 
+    An error is non-retryable if it is an authentication error or if it carries an
+    HTTP client-error status (4xx) other than 408, 409 and 429. Errors without a
+    recognisable status are treated as retryable.
+
     Args:
         error: The exception to check
 
@@ -314,18 +376,25 @@ def _is_non_retryable_error(error: Exception) -> bool:
     if error_type == "AuthenticationError":
         return True
 
-    # Check for other common non-retryable HTTP status codes
-    # 401 Unauthorized, 403 Forbidden
-    if hasattr(error, "status_code"):
-        if error.status_code in (401, 403):
-            return True
-
     # A missing API key or a missing optional dependency fails the same way on
     # every attempt
     if isinstance(error, (MissingApiKeyError, ImportError)):
         return True
 
-    return False
+    status = _get_http_status(error)
+    if status is None or not 400 <= status < 500:
+        return False
+    if status in _RETRYABLE_CLIENT_STATUSES:
+        return False
+
+    # AWS reports throttling with a 400 status; the error code tells them apart.
+    response = getattr(error, "response", None)
+    if isinstance(response, dict):
+        aws_code = str(response.get("Error", {}).get("Code", ""))
+        if aws_code.startswith(_RETRYABLE_AWS_ERROR_CODES):
+            return False
+
+    return True
 
 
 def url_retrieve(url: str):
diff --git a/python/python/tests/test_embeddings.py b/python/python/tests/test_embeddings.py
index 2438bfe80..129fa6742 100644
--- a/python/python/tests/test_embeddings.py
+++ b/python/python/tests/test_embeddings.py
@@ -633,6 +633,269 @@ def test_openai_no_retry_on_401(mock_sleep):
     assert mock_sleep.call_count == 0
 
 
+class _HttpStatusError(Exception):
+    """Stand-in for provider SDK errors (openai, cohere, ...) with a status code."""
+
+    def __init__(self, status_code, message="error"):
+        super().__init__(message)
+        self.status_code = status_code
+
+
+class _ResponseStatusError(Exception):
+    """Stand-in for requests/httpx errors, which expose `response.status_code`."""
+
+    def __init__(self, status_code):
+        super().__init__(f"HTTP {status_code}")
+        self.response = MagicMock(status_code=status_code)
+
+
+def _run_with_retry(side_effect, **kwargs):
+    """Run a function through the retry helper with a mocked `time.sleep`.
+
+    Returns (mock_func, sleeps, error).
+    """
+    from lancedb.embeddings.utils import retry_with_exponential_backoff
+
+    mock_func = MagicMock(side_effect=side_effect)
+    sleeps = []
+    error = None
+    with patch("time.sleep", side_effect=sleeps.append):
+        try:
+            retry_with_exponential_backoff(mock_func, **kwargs)()
+        except Exception as e:
+            error = e
+    return mock_func, sleeps, error
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("status", [400, 401, 403, 404, 405, 410, 413, 422])
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("make_error", [_HttpStatusError, _ResponseStatusError])
+def test_retry_does_not_retry_permanent_http_errors(status, make_error):
+    err = make_error(status)
+    mock_func, sleeps, error = _run_with_retry(err, max_retries=7)
+
+    assert error is err
+    assert mock_func.call_count == 1
+    assert sleeps == []
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("status", [408, 409, 429, 500, 502, 503, 504])
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("make_error", [_HttpStatusError, _ResponseStatusError])
+def test_retry_retries_transient_http_errors(status, make_error):
+    mock_func, sleeps, error = _run_with_retry(
+        [make_error(status), make_error(status), "result"], max_retries=7
+    )
+
+    assert error is None
+    assert mock_func.call_count == 3
+    assert len(sleeps) == 2
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "exc",
+    [
+        ConnectionError("connection reset"),
+        TimeoutError("timed out"),
+        OSError("network is unreachable"),
+        ValueError("custom embedding function failure"),
+        RuntimeError("boom"),
+        Exception("plain exception"),
+    ],
+)
+def test_retry_retries_errors_without_http_status(exc):
+    mock_func, sleeps, error = _run_with_retry([exc, exc, "result"], max_retries=7)
+
+    assert error is None
+    assert mock_func.call_count == 3
+    assert len(sleeps) == 2
+
+
+def test_retry_error_status_attributes_of_other_types_are_ignored():
+    # `code` is a string for openai errors ("model_not_found"), and arbitrary
+    # exceptions may carry unrelated numeric attributes. Neither is an HTTP status.
+    class WeirdError(Exception):
+        code = "model_not_found"
+        status_code = None
+
+    class ExitCodeError(Exception):
+        code = 2
+
+    for exc in (WeirdError("a"), ExitCodeError("b")):
+        mock_func, sleeps, error = _run_with_retry(exc, max_retries=2)
+        assert mock_func.call_count == 3
+        assert len(sleeps) == 2
+
+
+def test_retry_botocore_style_errors():
+    # botocore ClientError exposes `response["ResponseMetadata"]["HTTPStatusCode"]`.
+    # Bedrock reports throttling with a 400, which must stay retryable.
+    class ClientError(Exception):
+        def __init__(self, status, code):
+            super().__init__(code)
+            self.response = {
+                "ResponseMetadata": {"HTTPStatusCode": status},
+                "Error": {"Code": code},
+            }
+
+    throttled = ClientError(400, "ThrottlingException")
+    mock_func, sleeps, error = _run_with_retry([throttled, "result"], max_retries=3)
+    assert error is None
+    assert mock_func.call_count == 2
+
+    invalid = ClientError(400, "ValidationException")
+    mock_func, sleeps, error = _run_with_retry(invalid, max_retries=3)
+    assert error is invalid
+    assert mock_func.call_count == 1
+    assert sleeps == []
+
+
+def test_retry_authentication_error_by_name_not_retried():
+    class AuthenticationError(Exception):
+        pass
+
+    mock_func, sleeps, error = _run_with_retry(AuthenticationError("bad key"))
+    assert isinstance(error, AuthenticationError)
+    assert mock_func.call_count == 1
+    assert sleeps == []
+
+
+def test_retry_gives_up_after_max_retries_with_original_error_attached():
+    original = _HttpStatusError(503, "overloaded")
+    mock_func, sleeps, error = _run_with_retry(original, max_retries=3)
+
+    assert mock_func.call_count == 4
+    assert len(sleeps) == 3
+    assert "Maximum number of retries (3) exceeded" in str(error)
+    assert error.args[1] is original
+    assert error.__cause__ is original
+
+
+def test_retry_delay_is_capped_by_max_delay():
+    # Default settings (7 retries, 60s cap): the old implementation could sleep for
+    # up to ~47 minutes in a single retry and hours in total.
+    exc = _HttpStatusError(503)
+    for seed in range(50):
+        import random
+
+        random.seed(seed)
+        _, sleeps, _ = _run_with_retry(exc)
+        assert len(sleeps) == 7
+        assert max(sleeps) <= 60
+        assert sum(sleeps) <= 7 * 60
+
+    # Custom cap
+    _, sleeps, _ = _run_with_retry(exc, max_retries=10, max_delay=5)
+    assert len(sleeps) == 10
+    assert max(sleeps) <= 5
+
+
+def test_retry_delay_without_jitter_is_exact_exponential_then_capped():
+    _, sleeps, _ = _run_with_retry(
+        _HttpStatusError(500),
+        initial_delay=1,
+        exponential_base=2,
+        jitter=False,
+        max_retries=8,
+        max_delay=30,
+    )
+    assert sleeps == [2, 4, 8, 16, 30, 30, 30, 30]
+
+
+def test_retry_jitter_is_bounded():
+    # Each wait is within [delay / 2, delay], where delay grows by exponential_base
+    # per retry (no random factor is compounded across retries).
+    exc = _HttpStatusError(500)
+    for seed in range(50):
+        import random
+
+        random.seed(seed)
+        _, sleeps, _ = _run_with_retry(exc, max_retries=8, max_delay=100)
+        for i, slept in enumerate(sleeps):
+            delay = min(2 ** (i + 1), 100)
+            assert delay / 2 <= slept <= delay
+
+    # Extremes of the random source map to the ends of the range
+    with patch("random.random", return_value=0.0):
+        _, sleeps, _ = _run_with_retry(exc, max_retries=3)
+    assert sleeps == [1, 2, 4]
+    with patch("random.random", return_value=1.0):
+        _, sleeps, _ = _run_with_retry(exc, max_retries=3)
+    assert sleeps == [2, 4, 8]
+
+
+def test_retry_large_max_retries_does_not_overflow():
+    _, sleeps, _ = _run_with_retry(_HttpStatusError(503), max_retries=1500)
+    assert len(sleeps) == 1500
+    assert max(sleeps) <= 60
+
+
+def _register_failing_embedding(name, error):
+    """Register an embedding function that always raises `error`.
+
+    Returns the class and a list that records every call. The function is
+    re-created from table metadata, so the call count has to live outside of it.
+    """
+    calls = []
+
+    @register(name)
+    class FailingEmbeddingFunction(TextEmbeddingFunction):
+        def ndims(self):
+            return 4
+
+        def generate_embeddings(self, texts):
+            calls.append(len(texts))
+            raise error
+
+    return FailingEmbeddingFunction, calls
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("status", [400, 404, 422])
+def test_permanent_embedding_error_is_not_retried(tmp_path, status):
+    """A permanent provider error (e.g. a misspelled model name) must surface
+    immediately from both `table.add` and `table.search` instead of being retried
+    with minutes of backoff."""
+    error = _HttpStatusError(status, "The model `typo-embed` does not exist")
+    cls, calls = _register_failing_embedding(f"failing-embedding-{status}", error)
+    func = cls.create()  # default max_retries=7
+
+    class Schema(LanceModel):
+        text: str = func.SourceField()
+        vector: Vector(func.ndims()) = func.VectorField()
+
+    db = lancedb.connect(tmp_path)
+    table = db.create_table("t", schema=Schema)
+
+    with patch("time.sleep") as mock_sleep:
+        with pytest.raises(Exception, match="The model `typo-embed` does not exist"):
+            table.add([{"text": "hello"}])
+        assert len(calls) == 1
+
+        with pytest.raises(_HttpStatusError, match="does not exist"):
+            table.search("hello").limit(1).to_list()
+        assert len(calls) == 2
+
+    mock_sleep.assert_not_called()
+
+
+def test_transient_embedding_error_is_retried_in_table_add(tmp_path):
+    cls, calls = _register_failing_embedding(
+        "failing-embedding-503", _HttpStatusError(503)
+    )
+    func = cls.create(max_retries=2)
+
+    class Schema(LanceModel):
+        text: str = func.SourceField()
+        vector: Vector(func.ndims()) = func.VectorField()
+
+    db = lancedb.connect(tmp_path)
+    table = db.create_table("t", schema=Schema)
+
+    with patch("time.sleep") as mock_sleep:
+        with pytest.raises(Exception, match="Maximum number of retries"):
+            table.add([{"text": "hello"}])
+
+    assert len(calls) == 3
+    assert mock_sleep.call_count == 2
+    assert all(call.args[0] <= 60 for call in mock_sleep.call_args_list)
 @patch("time.sleep")
 @pytest.mark.parametrize(
     "error",