diff --git a/Essentials/src/main/java/com/earth2me/essentials/updatecheck/UpdateChecker.java b/Essentials/src/main/java/com/earth2me/essentials/updatecheck/UpdateChecker.java
index a56e3f945..2c39cace0 100644
--- a/Essentials/src/main/java/com/earth2me/essentials/updatecheck/UpdateChecker.java
+++ b/Essentials/src/main/java/com/earth2me/essentials/updatecheck/UpdateChecker.java
@@ -147,8 +147,8 @@ public final class UpdateChecker {
                 // Locally built?
                 return new RemoteVersion(BranchStatus.UNKNOWN);
             }
-            if (connection.getResponseCode() == HttpURLConnection.HTTP_INTERNAL_ERROR) {
-                // Github is down
+            if (connection.getResponseCode() == HttpURLConnection.HTTP_INTERNAL_ERROR || connection.getResponseCode() == HttpURLConnection.HTTP_FORBIDDEN) {
+                // GitHub is down or we hit a local rate limit
                 return new RemoteVersion(BranchStatus.ERROR);
             }