BerriAI/litellm · error · TimeoutError

RunwayML TTS task polling timed out after {timeout_secs} sec

Error message

RunwayML TTS task polling timed out after {timeout_secs} seconds

What it means

Poll-loop timeout in the RunwayML TTS handler: the audio-generation task did not reach a terminal state within timeout_secs of start_time, so a TimeoutError aborts the wait instead of polling indefinitely.

Source

Thrown at litellm/llms/runwayml/text_to_speech/transformation.py:242

        complete_url = api_base or get_secret_str("RUNWAYML_API_BASE") or self.DEFAULT_BASE_URL

        complete_url = complete_url.rstrip("/")
        return f"{complete_url}/{self.TTS_ENDPOINT_PATH}"

    @staticmethod
    def _check_timeout(start_time: float, timeout_secs: float) -> None:
        """
        Check if operation has timed out.

        Args:
            start_time: Start time of the operation
            timeout_secs: Timeout duration in seconds

        Raises:
            TimeoutError: If operation has exceeded timeout
        """
        if time.time() - start_time > timeout_secs:
            raise TimeoutError(f"RunwayML TTS task polling timed out after {timeout_secs} seconds")

    @staticmethod
    def _check_task_status(response_data: dict[str, Any]) -> str:
        """
        Check RunwayML task status from response.

        RunwayML statuses: PENDING, RUNNING, SUCCEEDED, FAILED, CANCELLED, THROTTLED

        Args:
            response_data: JSON response from RunwayML task endpoint

        Returns:
            Normalized status string: "running", "succeeded", or raises on failure

        Raises:
            ValueError: If task failed or status is unknown
        """
        status: Final = response_data.get("status", "").upper()

View on GitHub (pinned to 77b7c6c40c)

Solutions

1. Increase the polling timeout for TTS tasks.
2. Check RunwayML service status.

Example fix

litellm.speech(..., timeout=300)

When it happens

Trigger: Triggered when polling a RunwayML TTS task exceeds the configured timeout.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

Understand the failure class

• Timeouts: ETIMEDOUT, deadlines, and hung requests — what actually expires when a request times out.

AI-assisted analysis of BerriAI/litellm@77b7c6c40c (2026-08-18). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ae6f24b63ffdc4e0. Report an issue: GitHub.