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OpenRouter error

OpenRouter 403 Budget limit exceeded: what it means and how to fix it

Error message
403 Budget limit exceeded

Retry? NoLast verified 2 documented fixes2 sources

What it means

A guardrail budget, a workspace budget, or the key's own limit is spent, so the request is rejected before it reaches a provider. error.metadata.limit_source is openrouter_guardrail_budget, openrouter_workspace_budget, or openrouter_key_limit, with scope, limit_usd, spend_usd and resets_at.

Causes

  • Guardrail budget spent for the current window
  • Workspace budget spent
  • The key's own limit spent

How to fix it

  1. Fix 1.

    Wait for the budget window to reset (see metadata.resets_at), or ask your org admin to raise the budget. There is no Retry-After header because the wait is usually hours or days.

  2. Fix 2.

    Call GET /api/v1/key before a long task and watch effective_budget.remaining_usd.

More OpenRouter errors

All 32 OpenRouter errors

HTTP 403 at other providers

Compare 403 across providers

FAQ

What does the OpenRouter error "403 Budget limit exceeded" mean?

A guardrail budget, a workspace budget, or the key's own limit is spent, so the request is rejected before it reaches a provider. error.metadata.limit_source is openrouter_guardrail_budget, openrouter_workspace_budget, or openrouter_key_limit, with scope, limit_usd, spend_usd and resets_at.

How do I fix OpenRouter "403 Budget limit exceeded"?

There are 2 documented fixes. Start with the first: Wait for the budget window to reset (see metadata.resets_at), or ask your org admin to raise the budget. There is no Retry-After header because the wait is usually hours or days.

Should I retry OpenRouter "403 Budget limit exceeded"?

No. The official docs treat this error as not retryable: fix the cause before sending the request again.

Which other AI APIs return HTTP 403?

Per their official error docs: Amazon Bedrock (403 AccessDeniedException; 403 InvalidClientTokenId; 403 MPAgreementBeingCreated; 403 AWS Marketplace Agreement Failed within 15 minutes; 403 AWS Marketplace Agreement Pending after 15 minutes), Anthropic API (403 permission_error), Azure OpenAI (403 Forbidden (network access denied); 403 Forbidden (resource has been temporarily blocked)), Gemini API (403 permission_denied; 403 PERMISSION_DENIED), Groq API (403 Forbidden), Mistral API (403 Forbidden), OpenAI API (403 Country, region, or territory not supported; 403 PermissionDeniedError), Vertex AI (403 PERMISSION_DENIED), xAI API (403 Forbidden).

Sources

Last verified against 2 sources: OpenRouter's official docs and official SDK repositories.

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