Deepgram Common Errors

Overview

Comprehensive error reference for Deepgram API integration. Covers HTTP error codes, WebSocket errors, transcription quality issues, SDK-specific problems, and audio format debugging with real diagnostic commands.

Prerequisites

• Deepgram API key configured
• curl available for API testing
• Access to application logs

Instructions

Step 1: Quick Diagnostic

# Test API key validity
curl -s -w "\nHTTP %{http_code}\n" \
  'https://api.deepgram.com/v1/projects' \
  -H "Authorization: Token $DEEPGRAM_API_KEY"

# Test transcription endpoint
curl -s -w "\nHTTP %{http_code}\n" \
  -X POST 'https://api.deepgram.com/v1/listen?model=nova-3&smart_format=true' \
  -H "Authorization: Token $DEEPGRAM_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url":"https://static.deepgram.com/examples/Bueller-Life-moves-702702706.wav"}'

Step 2: HTTP Error Reference

Code	Error	Cause	Solution
400	Bad Request	Invalid audio format, bad params	Check audio headers, validate query params
401	Unauthorized	Invalid/expired API key	Regenerate in Console > API Keys
403	Forbidden	Key lacks scope	Create key with listen scope for STT
404	Not Found	Wrong endpoint URL	Use api.deepgram.com/v1/listen
408	Timeout	Audio too long for sync	Use callback param for async
413	Payload Too Large	File exceeds 2GB	Split with ffmpeg -f segment -segment_time 3600
429	Too Many Requests	Concurrency limit hit	Implement backoff, check plan limits
500	Internal Error	Deepgram server error	Retry with backoff, check status.deepgram.com
502	Bad Gateway	Upstream failure	Retry after 5-10 seconds
503	Service Unavailable	Maintenance/overload	Check status.deepgram.com, retry later

Step 3: WebSocket Errors

import { LiveTranscriptionEvents } from '@deepgram/sdk';

connection.on(LiveTranscriptionEvents.Error, (error) => {
  console.error('WebSocket error:', {
    message: error.message,
    type: error.type,
  });
});

// Common WebSocket issues:
// 1. Connection closes after ~10s of silence
//    Fix: Send keepAlive() every 8 seconds
connection.keepAlive();

// 2. "Could not process audio" errors
//    Fix: Verify encoding matches what you send
//    Must match: encoding, sample_rate, channels in listen.live() options

// 3. Connection refused / ECONNREFUSED
//    Fix: Check firewall allows wss://api.deepgram.com:443

// 4. Immediate disconnect with 1008 (Policy Violation)
//    Fix: API key invalid or lacks live streaming scope

Step 4: Transcription Quality Issues

# Check audio properties with ffprobe
ffprobe -v quiet -print_format json -show_format -show_streams input.wav

# Optimal audio for Deepgram:
# - Sample rate: 8000-48000 Hz (16000 recommended)
# - Channels: 1 (mono) or 2 (stereo for multichannel)
# - Bit depth: 16-bit
# - Format: WAV, MP3, FLAC, OGG, M4A, WebM

# Fix audio quality
ffmpeg -i noisy.wav \
  -af "highpass=f=200,lowpass=f=3000,volume=2" \
  -ar 16000 -ac 1 -acodec pcm_s16le \
  clean.wav

Quality Issue	Likely Cause	Fix
Empty transcript	No speech / too quiet	Boost volume: -af "volume=3"
Garbled output	Wrong encoding parameter	Match encoding to actual audio format
Missing words	Background noise	Apply noise filter before transcription
Wrong language	Language not specified	Set language: 'en' (or correct ISO code)
Low confidence	Poor audio quality	Preprocess to 16kHz mono, noise-reduce
Speaker mismatch	Diarization off	Enable diarize: true

Step 5: SDK-Specific Errors

// TypeError: createClient is not a function
// You have SDK v5 installed. Use:
import { DeepgramClient } from '@deepgram/sdk';
const dg = new DeepgramClient({ apiKey: process.env.DEEPGRAM_API_KEY });

// TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'prerecorded')
// v5 uses versioned namespaces:
await dg.listen.v1.media.transcribeUrl(source, options);

// "error": { "message": "..." } in result
// Always check the error field:
const { result, error } = await dg.listen.prerecorded.transcribeUrl(source, opts);
if (error) {
  console.error('Deepgram error:', error.message);
  // Don't try to access result — it may be undefined
}

// Python: deepgram.errors.DeepgramApiError
// Catch with try/except:
try:
    response = client.listen.rest.v("1").transcribe_url(source, options)
except Exception as e:
    print(f"API error: {e}")

Step 6: Retry Pattern for Transient Errors

async function transcribeWithRetry(
  client: any,
  source: any,
  options: any,
  maxRetries = 3
) {
  for (let attempt = 0; attempt <= maxRetries; attempt++) {
    try {
      const { result, error } = await client.listen.prerecorded.transcribeUrl(
        source, options
      );
      if (error) {
        // 429 and 5xx are retryable
        if (error.status === 429 || error.status >= 500) {
          throw new Error(`Retryable: ${error.status}`);
        }
        throw new Error(`Non-retryable: ${error.message}`);
      }
      return result;
    } catch (err: any) {
      if (attempt === maxRetries || !err.message.startsWith('Retryable')) {
        throw err;
      }
      const delay = Math.min(1000 * Math.pow(2, attempt) + Math.random() * 1000, 30000);
      console.log(`Retry ${attempt + 1}/${maxRetries} in ${Math.round(delay)}ms`);
      await new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, delay));
    }
  }
}

Output

• API diagnostic curl commands
• HTTP error reference with solutions
• WebSocket error handling patterns
• Audio quality debugging with ffprobe/ffmpeg
• SDK version-specific error fixes
• Retry pattern for transient failures

Error Handling

Error	Cause	Solution
ECONNRESET	Network interruption	Implement retry with backoff
ETIMEDOUT	Slow network or large file	Increase timeout, use callback
ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE	Passing string instead of Buffer to transcribeFile	Use readFileSync(path)
CORS error (browser)	API called from client-side	Proxy through your server

Resources

• Deepgram Error Handling
• API Rate Limits
• Status Page
• Deepgram Community