Intermittent 401 scope errors on key with "All" permissions — spikes randomly, no config changes

API Bugs
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22

Why is this not tracked in the status page?

Also is this solved?

Helps on the client side of things.

23

+1 same issue on my side this approx 24 hours, impacting a lot my clients…

24

Same issue here, started yesterday.

25

This must be related to this post on April 10, that’s when the issues started: https://x.com/OpenAI/status/2042780052669239782?s=20

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26

Same issue here. API key with ALL permissions, Owner role, no config changes — still getting intermittent 401 errors with Missing scopes: api.threads.write.

This is directly impacting our business. We have marketing campaigns scheduled for tomorrow and we cannot afford to have this unstable. Our entire customer-facing bot depends on the Assistants API (Threads endpoint).

The status page shows ‘Fully Operational’ but that does not reflect what we are actually experiencing. This issue is NOT on our side — we have verified the key, the project role, and recreated the key from scratch. Same result.

We need an official response from the OpenAI team:

  1. Is this a known platform-side issue with scope validation?
  2. Is there an ETA for a permanent fix?
  3. Is there a workaround while this is being resolved?

This thread already has multiple users reporting the same thing. Please escalate this internally.

27

Hi,

I’ve been experiencing something very similar.

In my case, I was making ~5k API requests and ran into intermittent 401 Missing scopes: model. request errors, even though the key is valid and unrestricted.

Like you described:

  • Most requests work fine

  • failures come in small, random spikes

  • Re-running the same requests usually resolves it

One additional detail (not sure if relevant):

My inputs include counterfactual versions of the same scenarios (very similar prompts with small variations). Some of these counterfactuals processed completely fine, while others failed with the 401 error, so it didn’t seem tied to any specific variant or input pattern.

This made me wonder if it might be a broader platform-side issue rather than something input-specific.

28

Just saw a new incident reported on OpenAI API status. Seems like the issue got the relevant attention and will get a response soon

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29

Hi everyone,

I am new to using the OpenAI API (not a developer, still learning), and I ran into an issue while making a large number of requests.

Issue

  • 4,950 total requests
  • A small number failed intermittently
  • Error:
    • ERROR: Error code: 401 - {‘error’: {‘message’: “You have insufficient permissions for this operation. Missing scopes: model.request. Check that you have the correct role in your organization (Reader, Writer, Owner) and project (Member, Owner), and if you’re using a restricted API key, that it has the necessary scopes.”, ‘type’: ‘invalid_request_error’, ‘param’: None, ‘code’: ‘missing_scope’}}
  • Model is gpt-5.1
  • API key is valid and unrestricted (org owner)

Context

  • Requests are very similar in structure, and some follow repeated patterns
  • The errors appear random and don’t seem tied to specific inputs
  • Re-running failed requests usually works without any changes

I was wondering if there was a way to prevent or reduce these intermittent 401 errors?

For example, should I add retries with delays, or could this be related to rate limits or request timing? Are there best practices to avoid this kind of issue?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!

30

Apparently a fix is live, I have NOT tested it yet though: https://status.openai.com/incidents/01KP1PS4WFSH4CVJT0DJBKQ3FT

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31

Update… testing it now and it’s working well for me (no more 401 errors).

EDIT - Sorry guys - spoke too soon. Got about 200 API calls through no problem, then 401s started again on pretty much every call after that. Got too excited. Doesn’t seem like it’s really fixed yet, will check again later tonight.

32

Same issue here, started yesterday.

33

I’m having the same issue for a few days now, random “401 Unauthorized, message: You have insufficient permissions for this operation. Missing scopes: model.request. Check that you have the correct role in your organization (Reader, Writer, Owner) and project (Member, Owner), and if you’re using a restricted API key, that it has the necessary scopes.” errors.

They go away and come back randomly. The API key has the correct permissions ofcourse and creating a new API key usually helps for a while but then the issue comes back.

It is really annoying it takes OpenAI so long to acknowledge the issue. Not to mention that as of now, the issue isn’t fixed yet despite what the status page says.

34

fix doesn’t help

35

Same error, impacting our production system too, we had to regenerate new keys as they fail. Thats the current work around until they fix it.

36

Hi! Status page mentioning a fix has been applied but at 8:23 BST is still not working if you can report please. Thanks again for your help!

37

last fix doesn’t help neither

38

What’s the status? The problem still exists from time to time!
Sometimes I see next error: “RBAC: access denied"

39

We are experiencing intermittent 401 errors related to “insufficient scope” when using the API, even though the service account key has all required permissions configured correctly.

These errors appear randomly and affect batch processing requests in particular. There have been no changes on our side (no key rotation, no permission updates, no config changes), which suggests the issue may not be client-related.

Given that there was an incident around April 10, it feels like not all servers or environments handling API requests have been fully updated or synchronized. The behavior is inconsistent, which further points to possible partial rollout or infrastructure desynchronization.

Could you please confirm:

  • whether there are still ongoing issues related to API authorization or batch processing,

  • and if partial deployment or cache inconsistencies across servers could be causing intermittent scope validation failures?

40

We’re experiencing an intermittent 401 error when calling the Responses API (openai.responses.create()) in our production application. The exact error:

You have insufficient permissions for this operation. Missing scopes: api.responses.write.
Check that you have the correct role in your organization (Reader, Writer, Owner)
and project (Member, Owner), and if you’re using a restricted API key, that it has
the necessary scopes.

Behavior:

  • The error occurs randomly — not on every request, and not tied to a specific user, model, or input.

  • When a user retries the exact same message with the same API key, it succeeds.

  • No changes are made to the API key, SDK config, or request payload between the failure and the successful retry.

  • The same API key works perfectly with other endpoints (e.g., openai.vectorStores.search()).

    Is the OpenAI team aware of this transient scope enforcement issue on the Responses API? Any timeline for a fix?

41

we also got similar issues