diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 5a489c942a..e9551518f0 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ Depends:
 Imports:
     tools,
     scales,
-    httr,
+    httr (>= 1.3.0),
     jsonlite (>= 1.6),
     magrittr,
     digest,
diff --git a/NAMESPACE b/NAMESPACE
index 458c99bc85..7f9ded1524 100644
--- a/NAMESPACE
+++ b/NAMESPACE
@@ -241,14 +241,14 @@ importFrom(htmlwidgets,saveWidget)
 importFrom(htmlwidgets,shinyRenderWidget)
 importFrom(htmlwidgets,shinyWidgetOutput)
 importFrom(htmlwidgets,sizingPolicy)
-importFrom(httr,GET)
-importFrom(httr,PATCH)
-importFrom(httr,POST)
+importFrom(httr,RETRY)
 importFrom(httr,add_headers)
+importFrom(httr,authenticate)
 importFrom(httr,config)
 importFrom(httr,content)
 importFrom(httr,stop_for_status)
 importFrom(httr,warn_for_status)
+importFrom(httr,write_disk)
 importFrom(jsonlite,parse_json)
 importFrom(jsonlite,read_json)
 importFrom(jsonlite,toJSON)
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 3d64491146..762df24359 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@
 
 ## IMPROVEMENTS
 
+* All HTTP requests are now retried upon failure (#1656)
+
 ## BUG FIXES
 
 * `ggplotly()` now handles `element_blank()` and `factor()` labels in positional scales correctly (#1731 and #1772).
diff --git a/R/api_exports.R b/R/api_exports.R
index 55238f71e1..02ae27638e 100644
--- a/R/api_exports.R
+++ b/R/api_exports.R
@@ -31,14 +31,14 @@
 #' @param endpoint the endpoint (i.e., location) for the request. 
 #' To see a list of all available endpoints, call `api()`.
 #' Any relevant query parameters should be included here (see examples).
-#' @param verb name of the HTTP verb to use (as in, [httr::VERB()]).
-#' @param body body of the HTTP request(as in, [httr::VERB()]).
+#' @param verb name of the HTTP verb to use (as in, [httr::RETRY()]).
+#' @param body body of the HTTP request(as in, [httr::RETRY()]).
 #' If this value is not already converted to JSON 
 #' (via [jsonlite::toJSON()]), it uses the internal `to_JSON()`
 #' to ensure values are "automatically unboxed" (i.e., vec.
 #'
 #' @param ... For `api()`, these arguments are passed onto 
-#' [httr::VERB()]. For `api_create()`, these arguments are
+#' [httr::RETRY()]. For `api_create()`, these arguments are
 #' included in the body of the HTTP request.
 #' 
 #' @export
@@ -187,9 +187,16 @@ api <- function(endpoint = "/", verb = "GET", body = NULL, ...) {
     body <- to_JSON(body)
   }
   
-  resp <- httr::VERB(
-    verb = verb, url = url, api_headers(), api_auth(), 
-    body = body, ...
+  resp <- httr::RETRY(
+    verb = verb,
+    url = url,
+    api_headers(),
+    api_auth(),
+    body = body,
+    times = 5,
+    terminate_on = c(400, 401, 403, 404),
+    terminate_on_success = TRUE,
+    ...
   )
   
   structure(process(resp), class = "api")
diff --git a/R/imports.R b/R/imports.R
index 804fc19e70..907d3ba772 100644
--- a/R/imports.R
+++ b/R/imports.R
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 #' @importFrom tidyr unnest
 #' @importFrom viridisLite viridis
 #' @importFrom jsonlite toJSON parse_json read_json
-#' @importFrom httr GET POST PATCH content config add_headers stop_for_status warn_for_status
+#' @importFrom httr RETRY content config add_headers authenticate stop_for_status warn_for_status write_disk
 #' @importFrom htmlwidgets createWidget sizingPolicy saveWidget onRender prependContent
 #' @importFrom lazyeval f_eval is_formula all_dots is_lang f_new
 #' @importFrom tibble as_tibble
diff --git a/R/orca.R b/R/orca.R
index d41ed26158..1a394788e4 100644
--- a/R/orca.R
+++ b/R/orca.R
@@ -192,9 +192,13 @@ orca_serve <- function(port = 5151, mathjax = FALSE, safe = FALSE, request_limit
         height = height,
         scale = scale
       )
-      res <- httr::POST(
-        paste0("http://127.0.0.1:", port), 
-        body = to_JSON(bod)
+      res <- httr::RETRY(
+        verb = "POST",
+        url = paste0("http://127.0.0.1:", port),
+        body = to_JSON(bod),
+        times = 5,
+        terminate_on = c(400, 401, 403, 404),
+        terminate_on_success = TRUE
       )
       httr::stop_for_status(res)
       httr::warn_for_status(res)
diff --git a/R/plotly_IMAGE.R b/R/plotly_IMAGE.R
index dd3f2b20fb..188c703ce8 100644
--- a/R/plotly_IMAGE.R
+++ b/R/plotly_IMAGE.R
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
 #' @param format The desired image format 'png', 'jpeg', 'svg', 'pdf', 'eps', or 'webp'
 #' @param scale Both png and jpeg formats will be scaled beyond the specified width and height by this number.
 #' @param out_file A filename for writing the image to a file.
-#' @param ... arguments passed onto `httr::POST`
+#' @param ... arguments passed onto `httr::RETRY`
 #' @export
 #' @examples \dontrun{
 #' p <- plot_ly(x = 1:10)
@@ -34,9 +34,16 @@ plotly_IMAGE <- function(x, width = 1000, height = 500, format = "png",
     filename = Sys.time()
   )
   base_url <- file.path(get_domain("api"), "v2", "images")
-  resp <- httr::POST(
-    base_url, body = to_JSON(bod), api_headers(), api_auth(),
-    if (!missing(out_file)) httr::write_disk(out_file, overwrite = TRUE), 
+  resp <- httr::RETRY(
+    verb = "POST",
+    url = base_url,
+    body = to_JSON(bod),
+    times = 5,
+    terminate_on = c(400, 401, 403, 404),
+    terminate_on_success = TRUE,
+    api_headers(),
+    api_auth(),
+    if (!missing(out_file)) httr::write_disk(out_file, overwrite = TRUE),
     ...
   )
   con <- process(append_class(resp, "api_image"))
diff --git a/R/signup.R b/R/signup.R
index 1f9472bcdc..cbf2f748d8 100644
--- a/R/signup.R
+++ b/R/signup.R
@@ -45,7 +45,14 @@ signup <- function(username, email, save = TRUE) {
     version = as.character(packageVersion("plotly"))
   )
   base_url <- file.path(get_domain(), "apimkacct")
-  resp <- httr::POST(base_url, body = bod)
+  resp <- httr::RETRY(
+    verb = "POST",
+    base_url,
+    body = bod,
+    times = 5,
+    terminate_on = c(400, 401, 403, 404),
+    terminate_on_success = TRUE
+  )
   con <- process(append_class(resp, "signup"))
   if (save) {
     # store API key as an environment variable in .Rprofile
diff --git a/inst/plotlyjs.R b/inst/plotlyjs.R
index d29e1496d7..b67833eb07 100644
--- a/inst/plotlyjs.R
+++ b/inst/plotlyjs.R
@@ -1,7 +1,13 @@
 library(httr)
 # download latest GitHub release
 # for a particular version: `zip <- "https://github.com/plotly/plotly.js/archive/v1.33.1.zip"`
-x <- GET('https://api.github.com/repos/plotly/plotly.js/releases/latest')
+x <- httr::RETRY(
+  verb = "GET",
+  url = 'https://api.github.com/repos/plotly/plotly.js/releases/latest',
+  times = 5,
+  terminate_on = c(400, 401, 403, 404),
+  terminate_on_success = TRUE
+)
 zip <- content(x)$zipball_url
 tmp <- tempfile(fileext = ".zip")
 download.file(zip, tmp)
diff --git a/man/api.Rd b/man/api.Rd
index ef1ab1ac14..c05689caf2 100644
--- a/man/api.Rd
+++ b/man/api.Rd
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ viewing that page will be able to view the graph.
 You do not need to be logged in to view this plot.}
 
 \item{...}{For \code{api()}, these arguments are passed onto
-\code{\link[httr:VERB]{httr::VERB()}}. For \code{api_create()}, these arguments are
+\code{\link[httr:RETRY]{httr::RETRY()}}. For \code{api_create()}, these arguments are
 included in the body of the HTTP request.}
 
 \item{id}{a filename id.}
@@ -78,9 +78,9 @@ included in the body of the HTTP request.}
 To see a list of all available endpoints, call \code{api()}.
 Any relevant query parameters should be included here (see examples).}
 
-\item{verb}{name of the HTTP verb to use (as in, \code{\link[httr:VERB]{httr::VERB()}}).}
+\item{verb}{name of the HTTP verb to use (as in, \code{\link[httr:RETRY]{httr::RETRY()}}).}
 
-\item{body}{body of the HTTP request(as in, \code{\link[httr:VERB]{httr::VERB()}}).
+\item{body}{body of the HTTP request(as in, \code{\link[httr:RETRY]{httr::RETRY()}}).
 If this value is not already converted to JSON
 (via \code{\link[jsonlite:toJSON]{jsonlite::toJSON()}}), it uses the internal \code{to_JSON()}
 to ensure values are "automatically unboxed" (i.e., vec.}