---
title: beresp.stale_if_error
summary: null
url: >-
  https://www.fastly.com/documentation/reference/vcl/variables/backend-response/beresp-stale-if-error
---

**Type:** RTIME  
**Access:** can be read and set, but not unset

**Available in:** fetch

The maximum stale age that is acceptable for a particular object.

However, for each request, `req.max_stale_if_error` limits the maximum stale 
age. For example, if `beresp.stale_if_error` for an object is set to one hour, 
but `req.max_stale_if_error` is set to ten minutes, ten minutes is the maximum 
stale age for that particular request. If `beresp.stale_if_error` for an object 
is set to ten minutes, but `req.max_stale_if_error` is set to one hour, ten 
minutes is the maximum stale age for that particular request. 

By default, the value of `beresp.stale_if_error` will be parsed from the
`stale-if-error` value in the `Surrogate-Control` or `Cache-Control` headers 
received from the backend.