Reading common error codes

What 401 / 402 / 404 / 429 / 5xx mean and what to check first.

401 Unauthorized

The token is wrong, deleted, or malformed. Check the header reads Bearer sk-xxx — note the space after Bearer.

402 Insufficient balance

Not enough balance for this request's hold. Top up and it resumes; no config change needed.

404 Not found

Almost always a wrong URL. Confirm you use https://api.router.ai/v1/... with exactly one /v1. A misspelled model name also returns 404 — model ids are listed on the Models page.

429 Rate limited

Lower your concurrency or retry shortly. Contact us if you need a higher limit.

5xx Upstream error

The upstream model service failed. We pass through the original upstream error body so you can diagnose it. These are usually transient — retry. Tell us if one model fails persistently.

Suggested order: status code → message in the body → your billing log. If the call is absent from your billing log, it never reached us and the problem is client-side.

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