ChatGPT Claude Gemini Midjourney Error Troubleshooting Checklist for Invalid Keys and Restricted Access

What’s most annoying isn’t not knowing how to use AI—it’s that you clearly paid, set up the key, and still get a pile of errors: Invalid API key, 401, 403, 429, and even Midjourney showing “interaction failed” directly in Discord. I compiled a general troubleshooting checklist from the pitfalls I’ve personally hit; following it usually lets you pinpoint the issue.

First, confirm you’re using the correct entry point

A ChatGPT/Claude/Gemini “web account” is not the same as an “API key.” Many people assume that if the website works, the API will work too, and the result is 401 or an invalid key. Go to the corresponding platform’s developer console to create a new key, and revoke the old one while you’re at it—also to avoid copying a key with trailing spaces because you copied only part of it.

Midjourney is used by most people via Discord commands, and it doesn’t provide a publicly available official API for you to just plug in a key. If you see “enter MJ Key” in a third-party tool, it’s most likely that tool’s own proxy/relay service. If something goes wrong, check the third party’s quota, region, and risk-control rules first.

403 Restricted Access: It’s usually not your operation

The two most common causes of 403 are: regional restrictions and unstable network routes. This happens especially often on corporate networks, campus networks, or when switching proxies back and forth, which can easily be flagged as abnormal. Use a fixed, clean network route—don’t switch between global proxy and direct connections.

429 Too Many Requests: Not a ban, you’re just rushing

429 is usually rate limiting or you’ve hit your quota. In developer scenarios, you can do two things: reduce concurrency and add retries with exponential backoff. Also, don’t write prompts like an “extra-long instruction manual.” I strongly agree with the KISS idea—“keep it simple”: the more complex it is, the easier it is to trigger validation failures or exceed limits.

Self-hosted bot still errors: Watch dependencies and environment

If you’re using plugins like Koishi to connect to an API and you run into npm version mismatches or dependency conflicts (e.g., ETARGET/ERESOLVE), it may look like an installation error, but in reality the call never succeeds. Pin your Node version and dependencies first, then test a minimal call.

One quick way to pinpoint: Is it the key or the network?

Test the same key once using the “official sample request,” then test again on a different network. This splits the problem into two halves and saves a lot of emotional cost.

If you want to avoid hassles like payments, subscriptions, and regional restrictions, go check out Titikey—it has more worry-free paths for many common pitfalls.