Errors

HTTP status codes, the error response shape, and how to handle them in any language

Every Fish Audio error comes back as JSON with a message and a status:

{ "message": "Invalid Token", "status": 401 }

(A request whose body can’t be parsed returns a plain-text parse error instead.)

Status codes

Status	Meaning	What to do
400	Bad request — invalid parameters, or a reference_id / voice that doesn’t exist	Fix the request; read the message.
401	Invalid or missing API key	Send Authorization: Bearer <key>; check it on API Keys.
402	Insufficient credits	Top up on Billing.
403	Not permitted for this key/resource	Check the key’s scope and the resource owner.
404	Model or voice not found	Verify the model_id / reference_id.
429	Rate limit exceeded	Back off and retry (see below).
5xx	Server error	Retry with backoff; if it persists, contact support.

Retries

Retry 429 and 5xx with exponential backoff. Don’t retry other 4xx codes — they won’t succeed without a change to the request.

import time
from fishaudio import FishAudio
from fishaudio.exceptions import RateLimitError, APIError

client = FishAudio()

for attempt in range(5):
    try:
        audio = client.tts.convert(text="Hello!")
        break
    except RateLimitError:
        time.sleep(2 ** attempt)            # 1s, 2s, 4s, ...
    except APIError as e:
        if e.status >= 500:
            time.sleep(2 ** attempt)
        else:
            raise                            # 4xx — fix the request

Handling errors in the SDKs

Both SDKs raise typed exceptions you can branch on. The base class carries the status and the parsed body.

Python

from fishaudio.exceptions import (
    AuthenticationError,  # 401
    RateLimitError,       # 429
    NotFoundError,        # 404
    APIError,             # any other HTTP error — has .status and .message
    FishAudioError,       # base class for all SDK errors
)

try:
    audio = client.tts.convert(text="Hello!")
except AuthenticationError:
    ...  # invalid or missing key
except RateLimitError:
    ...  # back off and retry
except NotFoundError:
    ...  # bad reference_id / model id
except APIError as e:
    print(e.status, e.message)  # 400, 402, 5xx, ...

Audio playback via play() needs ffmpeg. If it’s missing, the Python SDK raises DependencyError — install ffmpeg or save the audio to a file instead.