diff --git a/backend/cloudinary/cloudinary.go b/backend/cloudinary/cloudinary.go
index 5a80439b2..8e9f17e7c 100644
--- a/backend/cloudinary/cloudinary.go
+++ b/backend/cloudinary/cloudinary.go
@@ -34,6 +34,13 @@ import (
 	"github.com/zeebo/blake3"
 )
 
+// Pacer settings - tuned to match other rclone backends
+const (
+	minSleep      = 10 * time.Millisecond
+	maxSleep      = 2 * time.Second
+	decayConstant = 2 // bigger for slower decay, exponential
+)
+
 // Cloudinary shouldn't have a trailing dot if there is no path
 func cldPathDir(somePath string) string {
 	if somePath == "" || somePath == "." {
@@ -189,7 +196,7 @@ func NewFs(ctx context.Context, name string, root string, m configmap.Mapper) (f
 		root:  root,
 		opt:   *opt,
 		cld:   cld,
-		pacer: fs.NewPacer(ctx, pacer.NewDefault(pacer.MinSleep(1000), pacer.MaxSleep(10000), pacer.DecayConstant(2))),
+		pacer: fs.NewPacer(ctx, pacer.NewDefault(pacer.MinSleep(minSleep), pacer.MaxSleep(maxSleep), pacer.DecayConstant(decayConstant))),
 		srv:   rest.NewClient(client),
 	}
 
@@ -586,21 +593,18 @@ func shouldRetry(ctx context.Context, resp *http.Response, err error) (bool, err
 	if fserrors.ContextError(ctx, &err) {
 		return false, err
 	}
+	// Cloudinary returns rate-limit windows as "Try again on YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS UTC"
+	// embedded in the error message - honour it as a retry-after.
 	if err != nil {
 		tryAgain := "Try again on "
 		if idx := strings.Index(err.Error(), tryAgain); idx != -1 {
 			layout := "2006-01-02 15:04:05 UTC"
 			dateStr := err.Error()[idx+len(tryAgain) : idx+len(tryAgain)+len(layout)]
-			timestamp, err2 := time.Parse(layout, dateStr)
-			if err2 == nil {
+			if timestamp, err2 := time.Parse(layout, dateStr); err2 == nil {
 				return true, fserrors.NewErrorRetryAfter(time.Until(timestamp))
 			}
 		}
-
-		fs.Debugf(nil, "Retrying API error %v", err)
-		return true, err
 	}
-
 	return fserrors.ShouldRetry(err) || fserrors.ShouldRetryHTTP(resp, retryErrorCodes), err
 }