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> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Troubleshooting: voice inference credential rejected

> Resolve the 422 VOICE_CREDENTIAL_PROVIDER_REJECTED error when registering or rotating a speech-to-text or text-to-speech provider key in the Voice inference provider settings.

# Troubleshooting: voice inference credential rejected

When you register a new speech-to-text (STT) or text-to-speech (TTS) provider
key — or rotate an existing one — under **Settings → Voice inference
provider**, the request can return a `422` with error code
`VOICE_CREDENTIAL_PROVIDER_REJECTED`. This page tells you why it happens and
how to fix it.

## Symptom

You open Settings → Voice inference provider, select a provider (Deepgram for
STT, Cartesia or ElevenLabs for TTS), paste the API key, and submit. The
request fails with:

```json theme={null}
{
  "error": {
    "code": "VOICE_CREDENTIAL_PROVIDER_REJECTED",
    "message": "Deepgram rejected this credential (HTTP 401). Check the key in your provider dashboard and try again.",
    "status": 422,
    "details": {
      "kind": "stt",
      "provider": "deepgram",
      "provider_status": 401
    }
  }
}
```

The same error fires on credential **rotation** (`POST /voice-provider-credential/:kind/rotate`)
as well as initial registration — the two operations share the same
live-probe step.

## What it means

Orbit probes every credential against the provider's API **before** it is
persisted. When you submit a key on the register or rotate endpoint, the
platform sends a lightweight validation request to the provider (for example, a
Deepgram project-list call or a Cartesia voice-list call). If the provider
rejects that probe — returning an HTTP 401, 403, or similar — the platform
returns `VOICE_CREDENTIAL_PROVIDER_REJECTED` and the key never reaches the
dashboard.

This probe guards against saved-but-unusable credentials: a key that the
provider refuses at registration time will also fail at inference time, and a
broken credential silently degrades every STT or TTS call your agents make.
Probe-first registration catches the problem before any call is affected.

The probe response body — including the HTTP status the provider returned — is
available in `details.provider_status` on the error envelope, matching what
you would see if you called the provider directly with that key.

## Fix

1. **Verify the key in the provider dashboard.** Log in to the provider's
   console (for example, the Deepgram console at `console.deepgram.com`) and
   confirm the key you pasted is active, not expired, and not revoked.

2. **Check the key scope.** The key must have permissions for the inference
   feature you are registering:
   * **STT keys** (Deepgram) need access to the transcription or
     speech-to-text API.
   * **TTS keys** (Cartesia, ElevenLabs) need access to the
     text-to-speech or voice-synthesis API.
     A key scoped only to billing or account management will be rejected.

3. **Re-run the register or rotate operation** with the corrected key. If
   the provider accepts the probe this time, the credential is saved and your
   agents use it on the next turn.

## What not to do

Do not try to work around this by editing a provider label or toggling a
different field in the inference-provider settings. The probe runs on every
register and rotate call, not on label edits, and a key the provider refuses
will never be used for inference — bypassing the probe would mean your agents
fail silently at runtime with a harder-to-triage error.

## See also

* [POST /api/v1/voice/voice-provider-credential/:kind](/api-reference/endpoints/voice) —
  register a provider credential
* [POST /api/v1/voice/voice-provider-credential/:kind/rotate](/api-reference/endpoints/voice) —
  rotate an existing credential
* [STT Playground](/guides/stt-playground) — test transcription against your
  registered provider keys in real time


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