BerriAI/litellm · error · HTTPException

Authentication Error: invalid user key - token does not exis

Error message

Authentication Error: invalid user key - token does not exist

What it means

Prisma record-not-found error while updating token rows: the token update references a key that no longer exists in LiteLLM_VerificationToken. The client surfaces this as a database-level failure rather than a 404, so callers should verify the key exists before retrying the update.

Source

Thrown at litellm/proxy/utils.py:3675

                            hashed_tokens: Final = []
                            for t in token:
                                assert isinstance(t, str)
                                if t.startswith("sk-"):
                                    new_token = self.hash_token(token=t)
                                    hashed_tokens.append(new_token)
                                else:
                                    hashed_tokens.append(t)
                            where_filter["token"]["in"] = hashed_tokens
                    response = await VerificationTokenRepository(self).table.find_many(
                        order={"spend": "desc"},
                        where=where_filter,
                        include={"litellm_budget_table": True},
                    )
                if response is not None:
                    return response
                else:
                    # Token does not exist.
                    raise HTTPException(
                        status_code=status.HTTP_401_UNAUTHORIZED,
                        detail="Authentication Error: invalid user key - token does not exist",
                    )
            elif (user_id is not None and table_name is None) or (table_name is not None and table_name == "user"):
                if query_type == "find_unique":
                    if key_val is None:
                        key_val = {"user_id": user_id}

                    response = await UserRepository(self).table.find_unique(
                        where=key_val,
                        include={"organization_memberships": True},
                    )

                elif query_type == "find_all" and key_val is not None:
                    response = await UserRepository(self).table.find_many(where=key_val)
                elif query_type == "find_all" and reset_at is not None:
                    response = await UserRepository(self).table.find_many(
                        take=limit,

View on GitHub (pinned to 77b7c6c40c)

Solutions

1. Pass a valid existing token; check for typos or revoked/expired keys.

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at litellm/proxy/utils.py:3675 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

Understand the failure class

• Authentication and authorization failures — expired tokens, bad credentials, and missing scopes.

AI-assisted analysis of BerriAI/litellm@77b7c6c40c (2026-08-18). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b1927f619765dbb8. Report an issue: GitHub.