Hierarchical stalling strategies are disclosed. An indication is received of a stalling event caused by a requested resource being inaccessible. In response to receiving the indication of the stalling event, a set of cost functions usable to determine how to handle the stalling event is selected based at least in part on a type of the stalling event. The stalling event is handled based at least in part on an evaluation of the set of cost functions selected based at least in part on the type of the stalling event.