Skip to content
Survey Coder Pro Survey Coder Pro

UNAUTHORIZED — Missing or invalid API key

Summary

Section titled “Summary”

The request reached the API but didn’t include a valid key in the x-api-key header. The most common cause is sending the key in Authorization: Bearer ... instead, or omitting the header entirely.

HTTP status

Section titled “HTTP status”

401 Unauthorized. Standard envelope.

Example response

Section titled “Example response”
{
  "success": false,
  "error": {
    "code": "UNAUTHORIZED",
    "message": "Missing or invalid API key. Pass it in the x-api-key header.",
    "request_id": "req_01HXJZK4ABCDEF",
    "doc_url": "https://docs.surveycoder.io/errors/unauthorized"
  }
}

Why this happens

Section titled “Why this happens”
  • The x-api-key header is missing.
  • The key was sent as Authorization: Bearer ... (we don’t accept that — keys go in x-api-key).
  • The key value is malformed (must start with scp_live_ or scp_test_).
  • A proxy or middleware stripped the custom header before the request hit our edge.

How to fix it

Section titled “How to fix it”
  1. Confirm the header name is exactly x-api-key (lowercase by convention, but case-insensitive on our side).
  2. Confirm the value starts with scp_live_ (production) or scp_test_ (testing) and is 40+ characters long.
  3. If you use a fetch wrapper or HTTP client with Authorization-only defaults, set x-api-key explicitly:
Terminal window
curl https://api.surveycoder.io/v1/usage \
  -H "x-api-key: $SCP_API_KEY"
  1. If your key looks right but still fails, it may have been revoked or expired.
Section titled “Related”