diff --git a/internal/resilience/gate_test.go b/internal/resilience/gate_test.go
index 43f24bf88..0ad0b4905 100644
--- a/internal/resilience/gate_test.go
+++ b/internal/resilience/gate_test.go
@@ -329,22 +329,30 @@ func TestRateLimiterWaitReportsALongRetryAfterImmediately(t *testing.T) {
 	assert.Less(t, time.Since(start), 100*time.Millisecond, "did not burn the budget on a block it cannot outlast")
 }
 
-// The jitter that spreads retries must not stretch a sleep to or past the
-// budget: a block that lifts just inside the deadline is waited out and the
-// token taken, not overshot or rejected at the wire. Pinned to the maximum
-// jitter, which unchecked would overshoot by half.
+// The jitter that spreads retries must not stretch a sleep past the budget: a
+// block that lifts just inside the deadline is waited out and the token taken,
+// not overshot and rejected at the wire. Pinned to the maximum jitter, which
+// unchecked would overshoot by half.
+//
+// What is checked is the sleep the gate asks for, not the wall clock around a
+// real one. This test used to run Wait against a 200ms block with a 220ms
+// budget and time it: a sleep has no upper bound on a loaded machine, so a
+// wake-up 20ms late spent the budget and Wait returned the client-limit error
+// it is not about. Waiting out a block end to end is covered, with a budget
+// that is not a stopwatch, by TestRateLimiterWaitOutlastsAShortRetryAfter.
 func TestRateLimiterWaitNeverSleepsPastTheDeadline(t *testing.T) {
 	previous := jitter
 	jitter = func(d time.Duration) time.Duration { return d / 2 }
 	t.Cleanup(func() { jitter = previous })
 
-	rl := NewRateLimiter(NewStore(t.TempDir()), RateLimiterConfig{})
-	require.NoError(t, rl.SetRetryAfterDuration(200*time.Millisecond))
-
-	start := time.Now()
-	budget := 220 * time.Millisecond
-	require.NoError(t, rl.Wait(context.Background(), start.Add(budget)))
-	assert.Less(t, time.Since(start), budget+60*time.Millisecond)
+	assert.Equal(t, 300*time.Millisecond, sleepWithin(200*time.Millisecond, time.Second),
+		"room to spare: the jitter is added")
+	assert.Equal(t, 200*time.Millisecond, sleepWithin(200*time.Millisecond, 220*time.Millisecond),
+		"no room: the bare wait, not the 300ms that would wake past the deadline")
+	assert.Equal(t, minRefillWait*3/2, sleepWithin(time.Microsecond, time.Second),
+		"a deficit of microseconds still waits out minRefillWait, jitter and all")
+	assert.Equal(t, time.Microsecond, sleepWithin(time.Microsecond, time.Millisecond),
+		"nor does the floor itself overshoot a budget shorter than it")
 }
 
 func TestRateLimiterWaitRoundsTheRetryAfterUp(t *testing.T) {
diff --git a/internal/resilience/rate_limiter.go b/internal/resilience/rate_limiter.go
index d525c3767..58aa4debd 100644
--- a/internal/resilience/rate_limiter.go
+++ b/internal/resilience/rate_limiter.go
@@ -110,6 +110,20 @@ func (rl *RateLimiter) take() (allowed bool, wait time.Duration, blocked bool) {
 // consumed by whichever process reaches the lock first anyway.
 const minRefillWait = 5 * time.Millisecond
 
+// sleepWithin is how long to wait before the next attempt at the bucket:
+// wait, floored at minRefillWait and jittered so that processes which woke
+// together do not retry in lockstep. Jitter never pushes the sleep past the
+// remaining budget — a wake there would be rejected unheard after having
+// waited out the very refill or block it was waiting for — so when the
+// jittered sleep would not fit, the bare wait is used.
+func sleepWithin(wait, remaining time.Duration) time.Duration {
+	sleep := jittered(max(wait, minRefillWait))
+	if sleep > remaining {
+		return wait
+	}
+	return sleep
+}
+
 // Wait consumes tokens for one request, sleeping for refills or for a
 // Retry-After block to lift, until deadline. It returns nil when the request
 // may proceed, a *GateError when the deadline would pass first, or ctx.Err().
@@ -139,14 +153,7 @@ func (rl *RateLimiter) waitSince(ctx context.Context, start, deadline time.Time)
 		if wait > remaining {
 			return rl.gateError(blocked, wait, rl.now().Sub(start))
 		}
-		// Jitter never pushes the sleep to the deadline: a wake there would be
-		// rejected unheard after having waited out the very refill or block
-		// it was waiting for.
-		sleep := jittered(max(wait, minRefillWait))
-		if sleep > remaining {
-			sleep = wait
-		}
-		if err := pause(ctx, sleep); err != nil {
+		if err := pause(ctx, sleepWithin(wait, remaining)); err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
 	}