# API Connection Problems

If AI translation isn’t working, this page helps you diagnose provider/API issues.

### Common causes

* Missing or invalid API key
* No internet connection
* Provider rate limits or quota limits
* Wrong model selected

### Quick checks

1. Verify your API key in [Setting Up API Keys](/help/get-started-1/api-keys.md)
2. Confirm you selected a **provider** and **model** in Settings (LLM/AI settings)
3. Try translating a single short segment (`Ctrl+T`)
4. Check whether your account has credits/quota

### Common errors and fixes

| Symptom / message                         | Likely cause                                          | What to do                                                                                   |
| ----------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| “Invalid API key” / authentication failed | Key is wrong or has extra whitespace                  | Re-paste the key; make sure there are no leading/trailing spaces; Save and restart if needed |
| “Rate limit exceeded”                     | Provider is throttling requests                       | Wait 1–2 minutes; reduce batch size; try a different model                                   |
| “Quota/credits exceeded”                  | Account has no credits or billing disabled            | Check provider dashboard; add credits/enable billing                                         |
| “Model not found”                         | Selected model name not available                     | Pick a supported model in Settings; update if the provider changed model names               |
| “No response” / empty translation         | Transient provider failure, network issue, or timeout | Try single-segment translation; retry the segment; try a different model/provider            |
| Connection errors / timeouts              | Network/VPN/firewall/proxy issues                     | Try another network; disable VPN; allow Python/Supervertaler through firewall                |

### Tips for reliable translation

* Start with **single-segment** translation to verify your setup before running batch.
* If batch translation returns empty segments, enable the retry option in the batch dialog.
* If your segments contain tags/placeholders, add a prompt rule to preserve them exactly.

### Error messages

If you see an error dialog, copy the message and include it when asking for help.

Include:

* Provider + model
* Whether single-segment translation works
* The exact error text


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# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://supervertaler.gitbook.io/help/troubleshooting/api-issues.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.