Direct answer

This page explains how Australia-based teams use NextModel's OpenAI-compatible gateway. Every gateway error code, the JSON envelope, billing semantics, and retry guidance. It adds the practical steps, configuration notes, and common questions.

The error envelope

Every error the gateway generates is JSON the OpenAI-shaped SDKs can parse: an error object with code and message, plus a billing_status field, and an X-NextModel-Billing-Status response header. (The Anthropic-native /v1/messages ingress returns the Anthropic error envelope instead, with the same billing headers.) Use the code field for programmatic handling and the message for logs; treat any code not listed here as a plain failure and retry per the guidance at the end of this page.

Example error response

HTTP/1.1 429 Too Many Requests
X-NextModel-Billing-Status: not_charged

{
  "error": {
    "code": "rate_limited",
    "message": "Account rate limit exceeded."
  },
  "billing_status": "not_charged"
}

Errors never bill — verified per request

A reservation is taken before the upstream call and settled only after the model's response is delivered in full. Every failure path — provider error, mid-stream failure, even your own client disconnect — rolls the reservation back, so a failed request costs nothing. The X-NextModel-Billing-Status header on every response tells you which happened: settled (delivered and charged), rolled_back (failed, nothing charged), or not_charged (rejected before any upstream call). Usage that a stream already delivered before a later failure would have been settled at actual tokens; in practice the gateway rolls back whenever the stream did not complete cleanly.

Authentication and account

Fix the key or the account state before retrying — these never resolve on their own.

401 · missing_api_key	No Authorization header. Send: Authorization: Bearer $NEXTMODEL_API_KEY
401 · invalid_api_key	Key unknown, disabled, or deleted. Create a new key in the dashboard.
403 · account_not_found	The key's account no longer exists. Contact support.
402 · insufficient_credits	Prepaid credit check failed. Top up, then retry.
404 · anthropic_ingress_disabled	Anthropic-native endpoints are disabled on this deployment.
404 · embeddings_ingress_disabled	Embeddings ingress is disabled on this deployment.
404 · tts_ingress_disabled	Text-to-speech ingress is disabled on this deployment.
404 · transcription_ingress_disabled	Audio transcription is not open yet — the route exists but the deployment has not switched it on.

Request validation

The request never reached a model. Fix the payload; do not retry as-is.

400 · invalid_request_body	Body is not valid JSON or has the wrong shape.
400 · missing_message	messages array missing or empty.
400 · missing_input	Input field missing (responses, embeddings, audio).
400 · missing_prompt	Prompt field missing (image or audio endpoints).
400 · model_not_supported	Model id is not in the live catalog. Fetch GET /v1/models and use an id from it.
400 · prompt_too_long	Input exceeds the model's context window.
400 · message_too_long	A single message exceeds the per-message limit.
400 · n_too_large	The n (number of choices) parameter exceeds the allowed maximum.
400 · invalid_image_url	Image URL failed fetch or validation (multimodal input).
400 · unsupported_video_rate	Requested frame rate is not supported for the video model.
400 · audio_file_required	Audio endpoint needs a file upload.
400 · speech_input_too_long	TTS input text exceeds the character limit.
413 · request_body_too_large	Request body exceeds the size cap. Trim attachments or context.
409 · idempotency_replay_conflict	Same idempotency key reused with a different request body. Use a fresh key per distinct request.

Rate limits

Back off and retry. Respect the Retry-After header when present.

429 · rate_limited	Generic rate limit (Anthropic-ingress paths report this code too).
429 · account_rate_limited	Per-account request rate exceeded — slow down across all keys of the account.
429 · api_key_rate_limited	This key exceeded its own per-minute limit.

Upstream and platform availability

Transient by nature — safe to retry with exponential backoff. If a 503 persists across minutes, check the status page before filing a report.

upstream_error (provider's own status)	The provider returned a non-2xx; its status and message are relayed under this code.
502 · egress_translation_failed	Provider response could not be translated to the ingress protocol.
503 · channel_retries_exhausted	Every channel for the model failed; routing gave up. Retry after a delay.
503 · provider_network_error	Network failure while calling the provider.
503 · gateway_not_ready	Gateway storage or upstream is still initializing.
503 · media_busy	Image generation is at its concurrency cap. Honor Retry-After and retry.
503 · storage_not_configured / billing_store_unavailable	Gateway storage hiccup — retry.
500 · internal_error	Unexpected gateway fault. Retry once, then report with the request id.
500 · council_orchestration_failed	A council run failed mid-quorum. Retry; partial calls are rolled back.
404 · job_not_found	Video job id unknown or already expired.
404 · not_found	Unknown API path. Check the path against this docs section.
405 · method_not_allowed	Wrong HTTP verb; the Allow header lists what the path accepts.
501 · protocol_runtime_not_routed	Vendor-native protocol paths (gemini/mistral/cohere/dashscope/bedrock) are not open yet — call the same model through the OpenAI-compatible endpoints.

Retry guidance

Retry 429 and 5xx with exponential backoff and jitter, up to a small maximum; honor the Retry-After header when it is present. Never blindly retry 4xx — validation and auth errors fail identically forever. Requests accept an idempotency_key field in the JSON body: replaying the same request under the same key returns the original result instead of charging twice, and reusing a key with a different body is the 409 conflict above. When contacting support, include the request id, timestamp, model, and the error code — never the API key itself.