diff --git a/open-sse/services/combo.ts b/open-sse/services/combo.ts
index e445fac026..157018d553 100644
--- a/open-sse/services/combo.ts
+++ b/open-sse/services/combo.ts
@@ -2333,6 +2333,7 @@ export async function handleComboChat({
             log,
             tag: "COMBO",
             exhaustedLogLevel: "info",
+            structuredError,
           });
 
           // #2101: Prevent infinite fallback loops with 400 Bad Request errors that are genuinely
@@ -3240,6 +3241,7 @@ async function handleRoundRobinCombo({
           log,
           tag: "COMBO-RR",
           exhaustedLogLevel: "debug",
+          structuredError,
         });
 
         // Transient errors → mark in semaphore so round-robin stops stampeding this target.
diff --git a/open-sse/services/combo/targetExhaustion.ts b/open-sse/services/combo/targetExhaustion.ts
index bf3d69dc57..01f73d58db 100644
--- a/open-sse/services/combo/targetExhaustion.ts
+++ b/open-sse/services/combo/targetExhaustion.ts
@@ -15,7 +15,11 @@
  * The only standardization is the log MESSAGE wording (round-robin previously dropped the
  * "on remaining targets" suffix) — diagnostic text only, same #code + provider info.
  */
-import { classifyErrorText, hasPerModelQuota, isProviderExhaustedReason } from "../accountFallback.ts";
+import {
+  classifyErrorText,
+  hasPerModelQuota,
+  isProviderExhaustedReason,
+} from "../accountFallback.ts";
 import { RateLimitReason } from "../../config/constants.ts";
 import { isProviderCircuitOpenResult } from "./comboPredicates.ts";
 import type { ComboLogger, ResolvedComboTarget } from "./types.ts";
@@ -51,6 +55,8 @@ export type ApplyComboTargetExhaustionOptions = {
   log: ComboLogger;
   tag: string;
   exhaustedLogLevel: "info" | "debug";
+  /** Structured error object from upstream response — preferred over raw errorText for classification */
+  structuredError?: { code?: string; type?: string; message?: string };
 };
 
 /**
@@ -73,6 +79,7 @@ export function applyComboTargetExhaustion(
     log,
     tag,
     exhaustedLogLevel,
+    structuredError,
   } = opts;
   const { exhaustedProviders, exhaustedConnections, transientRateLimitedProviders } = sets;
   const provider = target.provider;
@@ -84,12 +91,15 @@ export function applyComboTargetExhaustion(
     Boolean(provider && provider !== "unknown") &&
     !hasPerModelQuota(provider, rawModel) &&
     (isProviderExhaustedReason(fallbackResult) ||
-      classifyErrorText(errorText) === RateLimitReason.QUOTA_EXHAUSTED ||
+      classifyErrorText(structuredError?.code || errorText) === RateLimitReason.QUOTA_EXHAUSTED ||
       allAccountsRateLimited);
   if (providerExhausted) {
     exhaustedProviders.add(provider);
     const emit = exhaustedLogLevel === "debug" ? log.debug : log.info;
-    emit?.(tag, `Provider ${provider} quota exhausted — marking for skip on remaining targets (#1731)`);
+    emit?.(
+      tag,
+      `Provider ${provider} quota exhausted — marking for skip on remaining targets (#1731)`
+    );
   } else {
     if (result.status === 429 && !isTokenLimitBreach && provider && provider !== "unknown") {
       transientRateLimitedProviders.add(provider);
diff --git a/src/shared/utils/classify429.ts b/src/shared/utils/classify429.ts
index 81ae985a99..6ff84edda0 100644
--- a/src/shared/utils/classify429.ts
+++ b/src/shared/utils/classify429.ts
@@ -43,8 +43,7 @@ const QUOTA_PATTERNS: ReadonlyArray<RegExp> = [
   /out of credits/i,
   /hard.?limit/i,
   /plan.*limit/i,
-  /resource.*exhaust/i,
-  /check.*quota/i,
+
   // Antigravity / Cloud Code quota exhaustion ("Individual quota reached.
   // Contact your administrator to enable overages. Resets in 164h27m24s.").
   // None of the patterns above match it, so the 429 was misclassified as a
diff --git a/tests/unit/combo/combo-target-exhaustion.test.ts b/tests/unit/combo/combo-target-exhaustion.test.ts
index b5dcce432c..5d28703aa0 100644
--- a/tests/unit/combo/combo-target-exhaustion.test.ts
+++ b/tests/unit/combo/combo-target-exhaustion.test.ts
@@ -118,6 +118,40 @@ test("an unknown provider is never marked (guard)", () => {
   assert.equal(s.exhaustedConnections.size, 0);
 });
 
+test("structuredError.code takes precedence over raw errorText for exhaustion classification", () => {
+  const s = sets();
+  const exhausted = applyComboTargetExhaustion(target(), {
+    ...baseOpts,
+    errorText: "Resource has been exhausted (e.g. check quota).",
+    result: { status: 429 },
+    fallbackResult: {},
+    sets: s,
+    structuredError: { code: "rate_limit_exceeded" },
+  });
+  assert.equal(exhausted, false, "rate_limit_exceeded should NOT mark provider exhausted");
+  assert.ok(
+    s.transientRateLimitedProviders.has("test-dedup-provider"),
+    "should be in transientRateLimitedProviders"
+  );
+});
+
+test("structuredError.code with non-matching value falls back to classifyErrorText behavior", () => {
+  const s = sets();
+  const exhausted = applyComboTargetExhaustion(target(), {
+    ...baseOpts,
+    errorText: "Rate limit reached",
+    result: { status: 429 },
+    fallbackResult: {},
+    sets: s,
+    structuredError: { code: "some_unknown_code" },
+  });
+  assert.equal(exhausted, false, "unknown code + non-quota errorText → not exhausted");
+  assert.ok(
+    s.transientRateLimitedProviders.has("test-dedup-provider"),
+    "should be in transientRateLimitedProviders"
+  );
+});
+
 test("a 200/benign status with no exhaustion mutates nothing and returns false", () => {
   const s = sets();
   const exhausted = applyComboTargetExhaustion(target(), {
@@ -127,5 +161,8 @@ test("a 200/benign status with no exhaustion mutates nothing and returns false",
     sets: s,
   });
   assert.equal(exhausted, false);
-  assert.equal(s.exhaustedProviders.size + s.exhaustedConnections.size + s.transientRateLimitedProviders.size, 0);
+  assert.equal(
+    s.exhaustedProviders.size + s.exhaustedConnections.size + s.transientRateLimitedProviders.size,
+    0
+  );
 });