The present invention is directed to regulating client requests in an electronic messaging environment. A client sends a data request to a messaging server. The messaging server receives the client data request and determines that the messaging server is unable to process the client data request. The messaging server adaptively generates a wait hint and sends a server response that includes the adaptively generated wait hint. The client receives the server response including the adaptively generated wait hint. The client waits a specified wait time in accordance with the adaptively generated wait hint to reduce the load on the messaging server. The client resends the data request subsequent to waiting the specified wait time.