Groq Common Errors Skill

Groq Common Errors

Overview

Comprehensive reference for Groq API error codes, their root causes, and proven fixes. Groq returns standard HTTP status codes with structured error bodies and rate-limit headers.

Error Response Format

{
  "error": {
    "message": "Rate limit reached for model `llama-3.3-70b-versatile`...",
    "type": "tokens",
    "code": "rate_limit_exceeded"
  }
}

Quick Diagnostic

set -euo pipefail
# 1. Verify API key is valid
curl -s https://api.groq.com/openai/v1/models \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $GROQ_API_KEY" | jq '.data | length'

# 2. Check specific model availability
curl -s https://api.groq.com/openai/v1/models \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $GROQ_API_KEY" | jq '.data[].id' | sort

# 3. Test a minimal completion
curl -s https://api.groq.com/openai/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $GROQ_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model":"llama-3.1-8b-instant","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"ping"}],"max_tokens":5}' | jq .

Error Reference

401 — Authentication Error

Authentication error: Invalid API key provided

Causes: Key missing, revoked, or malformed. Fix:

# Verify key is set and starts with gsk_
echo "${GROQ_API_KEY:0:4}"  # Should print "gsk_"

# Test key directly
curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" \
  https://api.groq.com/openai/v1/models \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $GROQ_API_KEY"
# Should return 200

429 — Rate Limit Exceeded

Rate limit reached for model `llama-3.3-70b-versatile` in organization `org_xxx`
on tokens per minute (TPM): Limit 6000, Used 5800, Requested 500.

Causes: RPM (requests/min), TPM (tokens/min), or RPD (requests/day) limit hit.

Rate limit headers returned: | Header | Description | |--------|-------------| | retry-after | Seconds to wait before retrying | | x-ratelimit-limit-requests | Max requests per window | | x-ratelimit-limit-tokens | Max tokens per window | | x-ratelimit-remaining-requests | Requests remaining | | x-ratelimit-remaining-tokens | Tokens remaining | | x-ratelimit-reset-requests | When request limit resets | | x-ratelimit-reset-tokens | When token limit resets |

Fix:

import Groq from "groq-sdk";

async function handleRateLimit<T>(fn: () => Promise<T>): Promise<T> {
  try {
    return await fn();
  } catch (err) {
    if (err instanceof Groq.APIError && err.status === 429) {
      const retryAfter = parseInt(err.headers?.["retry-after"] || "10");
      console.warn(`Rate limited. Waiting ${retryAfter}s...`);
      await new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, retryAfter * 1000));
      return fn(); // Single retry
    }
    throw err;
  }
}

400 — Bad Request

Invalid parameter: model 'mixtral-8x7b-32768' is not available

Causes: Deprecated model ID, invalid parameters, or schema violation.

Common deprecated model IDs: | Deprecated | Replacement | |-----------|-------------| | mixtral-8x7b-32768 | llama-3.1-8b-instant or llama-3.3-70b-versatile | | gemma2-9b-it | llama-3.1-8b-instant | | llama-3.1-70b-versatile | llama-3.3-70b-versatile |

Fix: Check current models at console.groq.com/docs/models or call GET /openai/v1/models.

413 — Request Too Large

Maximum context length is 131072 tokens. However, your messages resulted in 140000 tokens.

Fix: Reduce prompt size or split into smaller requests. All current Llama models have 128K context.

500 / 503 — Server Errors

Internal server error / Service temporarily unavailable

Causes: Groq infrastructure issue, model overloaded. Fix: Retry with backoff, fall back to a different model, check status.groq.com.

SDK-Specific Errors

TypeScript:

import Groq from "groq-sdk";

try {
  await groq.chat.completions.create({ /* ... */ });
} catch (err) {
  if (err instanceof Groq.APIError) {
    console.error(`Status: ${err.status}, Message: ${err.message}`);
  } else if (err instanceof Groq.APIConnectionError) {
    console.error("Network error:", err.message);
  } else if (err instanceof Groq.RateLimitError) {
    console.error("Rate limited:", err.message);
  } else if (err instanceof Groq.AuthenticationError) {
    console.error("Auth failed:", err.message);
  }
}

Python:

from groq import Groq, APIError, RateLimitError, AuthenticationError

try:
    client.chat.completions.create(...)
except RateLimitError as e:
    print(f"Rate limited: {e.message}")
except AuthenticationError as e:
    print(f"Auth error: {e.message}")
except APIError as e:
    print(f"API error {e.status_code}: {e.message}")

Escalation Path

Check status.groq.com for ongoing incidents
Collect request ID from error response (x-request-id header)
Run groq-debug-bundle skill to gather diagnostics
Contact Groq support with request ID and debug bundle

Resources

Next Steps

For comprehensive debugging, see groq-debug-bundle.

Agent Skills: Groq Common Errors

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