LLM API Troubleshooting

Fix the API errors that break your agent

Clear, accurate fixes for the LLM API errors developers hit most — 429 rate limits, “quota exceeded”, context length, overloaded servers, and the agent-specific ones that stall OpenClaw and Hermes. Causes, step-by-step fixes, and how to stop hitting them.

Rate limits

429OpenAI

OpenAI “Rate limit reached for requests” (429)

429OpenAI

OpenAI tokens-per-minute (TPM) rate limit

429Any provider

429 Too Many Requests — what it means & how to fix

429Anthropic (Claude)

Anthropic / Claude rate limit exceeded (429)

529Anthropic (Claude)

Anthropic “Overloaded” error (529)

503OpenAI

OpenAI “The server is overloaded” (503)

429OpenClaw

OpenClaw “API rate limit reached” (429)

Any agent

Why your AI agent keeps getting rate limited (and how to stop it)

Quota & billing

429OpenAI

OpenAI “You exceeded your current quota” (insufficient_quota)

429OpenAI

OpenAI monthly usage / billing hard limit reached

Agent / app

“Quota exceeded — please use your own API key” explained

Model limits

400Any provider

“Maximum context length exceeded” — what it means & how to fix

404OpenAI / OpenAI-compatible

“The model does not exist or you do not have access”

Auth

401OpenAI / OpenAI-compatible

“Incorrect API key provided” (401) — how to fix

Tired of fixing rate limits?

Most of these errors share one root cause: per-token, per-minute metering. Standard Compute is flat-rate and unlimited, with no per-minute caps and automatic failover — so agents degrade gracefully instead of throwing 429s. See what you'd pay → · How it connects →