# Responses API image upload error (worked before)

**URL:** <https://community.openai.com/t/responses-api-image-upload-error-worked-before/1289584>\
**Category:** Bugs\
**Tags:** gpt-4, bug, api, image-reading\
**Created:** [June 16, 2025, 7:25am UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/responses-api-image-upload-error-worked-before/1289584 "2025-06-16T07:25:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 11\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![laimonasvailenka](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/user_avatar/community.openai.com/laimonasvailenka/32/147853_2.png) [@laimonasvailenka](https://community.openai.com/u/laimonasvailenka)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2025, 7:25am UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/responses-api-image-upload-error-worked-before/1289584/1 "2025-06-16T07:25:09Z")

</div>

Hello,  
As of this morning, i can not pass image\_url to the responses api.  
API calls that have been working before (passing publick image URLS) are thrwoing this error.  
error message

```auto
BadRequestError: Error code: 400 - {'error': {'message': 'Failed to download file from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dd/Gfp-wisconsin-madison-the-nature-boardwalk.jpg/2560px-Gfp-wisconsin-madison-the-nature-boardwalk.jpg.', 'type': 'invalid_request_error', 'param': 'url', 'code': 'invalid_value'}}

```

The same error is happening when making custom n8n HTTP request (flow worked fine before)  
Using python openai package (exact same [code snipet](https://platform.openai.com/docs/api-reference/responses/get) shared in tutorial with image input)

code:

```auto
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI()

response = client.responses.create(
    model="gpt-4.1",
    input=[
        {
            "role": "user",
            "content": [
                { "type": "input_text", "text": "what is in this image?" },
                {
                    "type": "input_image",
                    "image_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dd/Gfp-wisconsin-madison-the-nature-boardwalk.jpg/2560px-Gfp-wisconsin-madison-the-nature-boardwalk.jpg"
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
)

print(response)

```

Notes:  
urls are publicly avaivable  
Tried with publick gdrive download link (link works with in incognito mode)  
prior to that i already ran !pip install --upgrade openai  
Can you please advise if:

- There is a known issue with content input as image\_url?
- Any recent changes to API behavior regarding remote file fetching?
- Additional debugging steps I can take?

Thank you!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![hyunsukim](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/user_avatar/community.openai.com/hyunsukim/32/642991_2.png) [@hyunsukim](https://community.openai.com/u/hyunsukim)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2025, 8:18am UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/responses-api-image-upload-error-worked-before/1289584/2 "2025-06-16T08:18:35Z")

</div>

We are experiencing the same issue when using the OpenAI package in a Node.js project.  
The project had been working fine for about a month, but the problem started occurring today.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![JeremyM](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/user_avatar/community.openai.com/jeremym/32/643016_2.png) [@JeremyM](https://community.openai.com/u/JeremyM)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2025, 9:54am UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/responses-api-image-upload-error-worked-before/1289584/3 "2025-06-16T09:54:52Z")

</div>

Same for us unfortunately. Image links not working in Agents SDK (responses API) and I’ve verified they are also not working in the playground. New behaviour as of this morning

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![\_j](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/user_avatar/community.openai.com/_j/32/766292_2.png) [@\_j](https://community.openai.com/u/_j)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2025, 12:23pm UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/responses-api-image-upload-error-worked-before/1289584/4 "2025-06-16T12:23:38Z")

</div>

### Chat Completions: a happy endpoint

- We only discover that o3-pro is pointlessly blocked on Chat Completions.

- I got this nonsense out of Chat Completions with o3-mini with internet URL:

`openai.BadRequestError: Error code: 400 - {'error': {'message': "Invalid image URL: 'messages[0].content[0].image_url.url'. Expected a base64-encoded data URL with an image MIME type (e.g. 'data:image/png;base64,aW1nIGJ5dGVzIGhlcmU='), but got a value without the 'data:' prefix.", 'type': 'invalid_request_error', 'param': 'messages[0].content[0].image_url.url', 'code': 'invalid_value'}}`

The API is supposed to detect either an internet URL or a data URI in the string.

What should be returned is the same error reached by sending base64:

`openai.BadRequestError: Error code: 400 - {'error': {'message': 'Invalid content type. image_url is only supported by certain models.', 'type': 'invalid_request_error', 'param': 'messages.[0].content.[1].type', 'code': None}}`

* * *

Further requests got working responses with all models, by URL or by base64. This or the first post’s. So it is not some new rule of a site blocking OpenAI with `robots.txt` or blocking outright.

```python
if you_have_a_URL:
    # Use a remote image URL for the test
    user_message = [
        {
            "role": "user",
            "content": [
                {
                    "type": "image_url",
                    "image_url": {
                        "url": "https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/1?v=4"
                    },
                },
                {"type": "text", "text": "describe the content of images"},
            ],
        }
    ]

```

```auto
--- Testing Model: o3-2025-04-16 ---
  Input Tokens: 236
  Response: The image is a well-lit portrait set against a dark, neutral background: • A ma
  [elapsed: 6.1 seconds]
--- Testing Model: o4-mini-2025-04-16 ---
  Input Tokens: 399
  Response: The image is a close-up studio portrait of an adult man. He has short, wavy brow
  [elapsed: 3.0 seconds]
--- Testing Model: gpt-4.1-2025-04-14 ---
  Input Tokens: 267
  Response: The image shows a man with short, curly brown hair and light facial hair. He is 
  [elapsed: 2.8 seconds]
--- Testing Model: gpt-4.1-mini-2025-04-14 ---
  Input Tokens: 378
  Response: The image shows a man with short, curly brown hair and light facial hair. He has
  [elapsed: 1.5 seconds]
--- Testing Model: gpt-4.1-nano-2025-04-14 ---
  Input Tokens: 567
  Response: This is a portrait photograph of a man with short, curly dark hair and a light b
  [elapsed: 5.5 seconds]
--- Testing Model: gpt-4.5-preview-2025-02-27 ---
  Input Tokens: 267
  Response: The image shows a portrait of a man with short, curly brown hair and a slight be
  [elapsed: 5.5 seconds]
--- Testing Model: o1-2024-12-17 ---
  Input Tokens: 236
  Response: The image shows a man facing the camera against a dark background. He appears to
  [elapsed: 8.6 seconds]
--- Testing Model: gpt-4o-2024-11-20 ---
  Input Tokens: 267
  Response: The image shows a man with short, curly dark hair and a beard. He is wearing a d
  [elapsed: 1.8 seconds]
--- Testing Model: gpt-4o-2024-08-06 ---
  Input Tokens: 267
  Response: The image shows a man with short, curly hair and a beard. He is wearing a dark t
  [elapsed: 2.7 seconds]
--- Testing Model: gpt-4o-mini-2024-07-18 ---
  Input Tokens: 8512
  Response: The image features a man with short, curly hair and a light beard, smiling at th
  [elapsed: 2.1 seconds]
--- Testing Model: gpt-4o-2024-05-13 ---
  Input Tokens: 267
  Response: The image shows a man with short, curly dark hair and a light beard. He is weari
  [elapsed: 1.6 seconds]
--- Testing Model: gpt-4-turbo-2024-04-09 ---
  Input Tokens: 267
  Response: The image shows a close-up portrait of a man with a friendly expression. He has 
  [elapsed: 6.2 seconds]
--- All tests complete. ---

```

* * *

## Responses, “works for me”…

I produced a similar script using Responses and the internet URL, all successful just now.

```auto
--- Testing Model: o3-pro-2025-06-10 ---
  Input Tokens: 266
  Response: The image shows a head-and-shoulders portrait of an adult man with short, curly 
  [elapsed: 23.9 seconds]
--- Testing Model: o3-2025-04-16 ---
  Input Tokens: 236
  Response: The image shows a man with short, curly brown hair and light facial stubble. He 
  [elapsed: 8.3 seconds]
--- Testing Model: o4-mini-2025-04-16 ---
  Input Tokens: 399
  Response: The image is a tightly framed head-and-shoulders portrait of an adult man agains
  [elapsed: 8.1 seconds]
--- Testing Model: gpt-4.1-2025-04-14 ---
  Input Tokens: 267
  Response: The image shows a man with short, curly brown hair and light skin. He has green 
  [elapsed: 2.9 seconds]
--- Testing Model: gpt-4.1-mini-2025-04-14 ---
  Input Tokens: 378
  Response: The image shows a man with short, curly brown hair and light facial hair. He is 
  [elapsed: 3.8 seconds]
--- Testing Model: gpt-4.1-nano-2025-04-14 ---
  Input Tokens: 567
  Response: The image features a man with short, curly dark hair and a light beard. He is sm
  [elapsed: 1.6 seconds]
--- Testing Model: gpt-4.5-preview-2025-02-27 ---
  Input Tokens: 267
  Response: The image is a portrait of a man with short, curly brown hair and a slight beard
  [elapsed: 7.6 seconds]
--- Testing Model: o1-2024-12-17 ---
  Input Tokens: 44
  Response: It appears to be a portrait-style photo of an adult male viewed from the shoulde
  [elapsed: 12.3 seconds]
--- Testing Model: gpt-4o-2024-11-20 ---
  Input Tokens: 267
  Response: The image shows a man with short, curly dark hair and a beard, wearing a dark-co
  [elapsed: 2.4 seconds]
--- Testing Model: gpt-4o-2024-08-06 ---
  Input Tokens: 267
  Response: The image shows a person with short, curly hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-sh
  [elapsed: 2.2 seconds]
--- Testing Model: gpt-4o-mini-2024-07-18 ---
  Input Tokens: 8512
  Response: The image features a man with short, curly hair and a light beard, smiling at th
  [elapsed: 2.4 seconds]
--- Testing Model: gpt-4o-2024-05-13 ---
  Input Tokens: 267
  Response: The image is a portrait of a man with short, curly dark hair and a light beard. 
  [elapsed: 2.7 seconds]
--- Testing Model: gpt-4-turbo-2024-04-09 ---
  Input Tokens: 267
  Response: The image shows a close-up portrait of a Caucasian man with a friendly expressio
  [elapsed: 9.6 seconds]
--- All tests complete. ---

```

* * *

## Issue with the first post’s Image URL

Try this for the same picture:

`https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/Gfp-wisconsin-madison-the-nature-boardwalk.jpg`

NOT:

`"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dd/Gfp-wisconsin-madison-the-nature-boardwalk.jpg/2560px-Gfp-wisconsin-madison-the-nature-boardwalk.jpg"`

Then success…

```auto
--- Testing Model: o3-pro-2025-06-10 ---
  Input Tokens: 1116
  Response: The image shows a tranquil, wide-open landscape on a bright, sunny day. A narrow
  [elapsed: 56.6 seconds]
--- Testing Model: o3-2025-04-16 ---
  Input Tokens: 986
  Response: The image shows a straight wooden boardwalk running through a lush, green meadow
  [elapsed: 6.4 seconds]

```

Something about the API doesn’t like the first post’s URL, the one from the API Reference example, `ERROR: Error code: 400 - {'error': {'message': 'Failed to download file from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dd/Gfp-wisconsin-madison-the-nature-boardwalk.jpg/2560px-Gfp-wisconsin-madison-the-nature-boardwalk.jpg.', 'type': 'invalid_request_error', 'param': 'url', 'code': 'invalid_value'}}`

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![\_j](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/user_avatar/community.openai.com/_j/32/766292_2.png) [@\_j](https://community.openai.com/u/_j)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2025, 12:50pm UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/responses-api-image-upload-error-worked-before/1289584/5 "2025-06-16T12:50:19Z")

</div>

I thought I’d test what it might be that is particular about that image.

Does the API fail if there are two extensions in the path?

`https://hotnova.com/Gfp-wisconsin-madison-the-nature-boardwalk.jpg/Gfp-wisconsin-madison-the-nature-boardwalk.jpg`

Nope. That works okay. Maybe it is the depth of the image path.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![marvinbuth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@marvinbuth](https://community.openai.com/u/marvinbuth)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2025, 2:27pm UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/responses-api-image-upload-error-worked-before/1289584/6 "2025-06-16T14:27:07Z")

</div>

I’m having the same issue since this morning about 5 am UTC.  
We use Google Firebase storage and cloud functions (Node.JS) with o4-mini-high for image analysis.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![edwinarbus](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/user_avatar/community.openai.com/edwinarbus/32/455108_2.png) [@edwinarbus](https://community.openai.com/u/edwinarbus)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2025, 8:24pm UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/responses-api-image-upload-error-worked-before/1289584/7 "2025-06-16T20:24:25Z")

</div>

Sorry for the issues here. @stevecoffey is fixing this now!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![stevecoffey](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/user_avatar/community.openai.com/stevecoffey/32/289516_2.png) [@stevecoffey](https://community.openai.com/u/stevecoffey)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2025, 3:57am UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/responses-api-image-upload-error-worked-before/1289584/8 "2025-06-17T03:57:41Z")

</div>

Hey all! Thanks so much for reporting. We pushed a fix for this earlier today. Let me know if things are looking better.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![\_j](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/user_avatar/community.openai.com/_j/32/766292_2.png) [@\_j](https://community.openai.com/u/_j)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2025, 4:20am UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/responses-api-image-upload-error-worked-before/1289584/9 "2025-06-17T04:20:32Z")

</div>

> [@laimonasvailenka](#):
>
> `https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dd/Gfp-wisconsin-madison-the-nature-boardwalk.jpg/2560px-Gfp-wisconsin-madison-the-nature-boardwalk.jpg`

This URL would fail on 10 different models within seconds. So not spitting out a console of errors is a success!

Ranked, letting models “describe contents” (disregarding o3-pro’s looking and slowing things down by nearly a minute)

gpt-4.1-nano-2025-04-14: 3.7 seconds  
gpt-4o-2024-11-20: 4.0 seconds  
gpt-4o-mini-2024-07-18: 4.0 seconds  
gpt-4o-2024-05-13: 4.0 seconds  
gpt-4o-2024-08-06: 4.3 seconds  
gpt-4.1-mini-2025-04-14: 4.3 seconds  
gpt-4.1-2025-04-14: 5.8 seconds  
gpt-4-turbo-2024-04-09: 7.2 seconds  
o3-2025-04-16: 7.4 seconds  
o4-mini-2025-04-16: 7.4 seconds  
gpt-4.5-preview-2025-02-27: 7.8 seconds  
o1-2024-12-17: 15.4 seconds

So back on track.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Keremk](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/user_avatar/community.openai.com/keremk/32/514700_2.png) [@Keremk](https://community.openai.com/u/Keremk)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2025, 7:09am UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/responses-api-image-upload-error-worked-before/1289584/10 "2025-06-17T07:09:34Z")

</div>

I posted this in another topic, but it may be related. When editing an existing image using the responses API and referring to it as image\_url (base64 encoded) in the [background mode](https://platform.openai.com/docs/guides/background), polling the status always returns “in-progress” as response and never completes. If I am generating an image from a prompt, then the background mode does complete and works as expected. In my OpenAI logs I can see that the image to be edited is uploaded, but an output is never generated. I am using Base64 encoding in the responses API. I also tried uploading a file and using its fileId and in that case I immediately get a “Failed” response from the API.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Riad\_Khan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/user_avatar/community.openai.com/riad_khan/32/650553_2.png) [@Riad\_Khan](https://community.openai.com/u/Riad_Khan)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 10:38pm UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/responses-api-image-upload-error-worked-before/1289584/11 "2025-07-03T22:38:49Z")

</div>

I’m experiencing the exact same issue.

I’ve been using Facebook image URLs that come from the Facebook Graph API, such as:

These images are publicly accessible and were working perfectly with OpenAI’s Vision API — even as recently as June 2025.

However, as of July 4, 2025, I started getting a 400 invalid\_image\_url error from the API.

I haven’t changed anything in my implementation, so this seems like a sudden backend issue on OpenAI’s side. Would appreciate any insights or updates from the team.