insufficient_quota: balance, quota window, or wrong key

How to tell an empty balance from a quota window that has not reset.

Reviewed 2026-11-12 · Chinese detail: 完整中文页

Three different limits

A provider can reject you because the account balance is empty, because a daily or monthly quota window is exhausted, or because the key you are using has no quota attached. The error text is often the same.

Check

1. Sign in to the provider dashboard and read the balance, not just the error message.

2. Confirm which key the request used. Test keys and production keys are often separate.

3. Check free-credit expiry. Trial credits commonly expire after a fixed period and are not restored.

4. Check when the quota window resets. Some limits are daily, some monthly.

Fix

Top up the account, switch to a key with quota, or wait for the window to reset. If you are on a relay, ask support which upstream account your group uses; a relay can be out of quota even when your own balance is positive.

Do not retry in a loop

A quota error will not succeed on retry. Stop the client, fix the cause, then resume. Blind retries can turn a small billing problem into a large one.

This page is general guidance, not a statement about any specific provider. For measured data, see the relay directory and method.