diff --git a/src/client/http.test.ts b/src/client/http.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9cf79ff
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/client/http.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+/* eslint-disable @typescript-eslint/no-magic-numbers */
+import { describe, test, expect } from "bun:test";
+import { Client } from "./client";
+
+describe("http", () => {
+  test("should terminate after sleeping 5 times", () => {
+    // init a cient which will always get errors
+    const client = new Client({
+      baseUrl: "https:/",
+      token: "",
+      // set retry explicitly
+      retry: {
+        retries: 5,
+        backoff: (retryCount) => Math.exp(retryCount) * 50,
+      },
+    });
+
+    // get should take 4.287 seconds and terminate before the timeout.
+    const throws = () =>
+      Promise.race([client.dlq.listMessages(), new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, 4500))]);
+
+    // if the Promise.race doesn't throw, that means the retries took longer than 4.5s
+    expect(throws).toThrow("Was there a typo in the url or port?");
+  });
+});
diff --git a/src/client/http.ts b/src/client/http.ts
index b15b655..193f810 100644
--- a/src/client/http.ts
+++ b/src/client/http.ts
@@ -108,7 +108,7 @@ export class HttpClient implements Requester {
             backoff: () => 0,
           }
         : {
-            attempts: config.retry?.retries ? config.retry.retries + 1 : 5,
+            attempts: config.retry?.retries ?? 5,
             backoff: config.retry?.backoff ?? ((retryCount) => Math.exp(retryCount) * 50),
           };
   }
@@ -172,13 +172,17 @@ export class HttpClient implements Requester {
 
     let response: Response | undefined = undefined;
     let error: Error | undefined = undefined;
-    for (let index = 0; index < this.retry.attempts; index++) {
+    for (let index = 0; index <= this.retry.attempts; index++) {
       try {
         response = await fetch(url.toString(), requestOptions);
         break;
       } catch (error_) {
         error = error_ as Error;
-        await new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, this.retry.backoff(index)));
+
+        // Only sleep if this is not the last attempt
+        if (index < this.retry.attempts) {
+          await new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, this.retry.backoff(index)));
+        }
       }
     }
     if (!response) {