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

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

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

Resources

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