Why was my API request rejected?
A rejected API request usually comes down to one of a few specific, checkable causes.
Checklist
- Key included correctly — confirm it's in the header exactly as shown in your dashboard's example request.
- Key still active — a deactivated or regenerated key stops working immediately; use the current one shown in your dashboard.
- Daily limit reached — check your usage in Dashboard → Developer API.
- Request format — compare your request structure against the documented example for that specific endpoint.
- File size limits — API requests typically have the same size limits as the equivalent tool in the browser.
Getting a working example
Your dashboard shows a working curl example for each endpoint — starting from that and modifying it is more reliable than building a request from scratch.
A systematic debugging approach
Start from the exact working example shown in your dashboard and change one thing at a time — the endpoint, then a parameter, then the payload — rather than modifying several things simultaneously, which makes it far easier to identify exactly which change caused a request to start failing.
If the documented example itself does not work
That points to an account-level issue — an inactive key or a limit already reached — rather than a problem with your specific request construction.
Testing changes in a safe environment first
If your API usage is part of a larger application already in use by others, testing a fix with a single manual request before rolling out a change more broadly avoids a widespread failure if the fix itself turns out to be incomplete.
Related help articles
- How to sign up for a free account
- How to recover a forgotten password
- What happens to my saved work if I cancel my plan?
Keeping a saved, known-working example request somewhere accessible — not just relying on memory — gives you a reliable starting point to return to any time a new request needs debugging, rather than reconstructing the correct format from scratch each time.
