Common errors and recovery

Record the HTTP status and request path before choosing a recovery step.

401 Unauthorized

The Key is missing, inactive, incomplete, or sent with the wrong authentication header.

Copy the Key again, remove surrounding whitespace, and verify Bearer, x-api-key, or x-goog-api-key for the selected protocol.

The current Key, account state, or model access does not permit the request.

Confirm that the Key is active and choose a currently accessible model on the models and pricing page.

The Base URL, protocol path, or HTTP method does not match; the client may also append /v1 twice.

Compare the full method and path with the protocol guide and enter only the documented Base URL level.

Requests are arriving too quickly, or the currently available balance is insufficient.

Reduce concurrency, retry with increasing delays, and confirm account state in the portal before continuing.

An upstream service or the gateway cannot complete the request temporarily.

Keep the timestamp and status, then retry later. If it continues, run the minimal curl request to isolate client configuration.

A local network, proxy, or long-lived connection closed before the response completed.

Confirm the domain is reachable. Reconnect streams with backoff and do not automatically repeat non-idempotent operations.

Keep the timestamp, protocol, HTTP method, path, status, and a redacted response excerpt. Never include the full Key.