Common Errors

This page lists common errors and provides tips on preventing and handling them. For a complete list of errors, review the error references. For further support, visit our forum.

google.auth.exceptions.RefreshError
invalid_grant
Summary	Token has been expired or revoked.
Common causes	A Google Cloud Platform project with an OAuth consent screen configured for an external user type and a publishing status of "Testing" is issued a refresh token expiring in 7 days.
How to handle	Your Google project's publishing status is "Testing", so the refresh token expires every 7 days and receives an “invalid_grant” error. Go to the Google API Console and navigate to the OAuth consent screen. Then change the publishing status to “In production” following these instructions to avoid the refresh token expiring in 7 days.
Prevention tips	Follow these instructions.

AdError
CANNOT_USE_AD_SUBCLASS_FOR_OPERATOR
Summary	This operator cannot be used with a subclass of Ad.
Common causes	You've tried to modify attributes other than status of the ad.
How to handle	N/A
Prevention tips	Once an ad is created, it cannot be modified. If you would like to modify the ad, you must make a new ad and then remove the old one. The status of the ad is, however, modifiable using MutateAdGroupAds
INVALID_INPUT
Summary	One of the fields in an ad contains invalid characters.
Common causes	Using special characters in URLs
How to handle	N/A
Prevention tips	Validate URLs in your application before making a request to the API.
LINE_TOO_WIDE
Summary	One of the lines in an ad was longer than the maximum allowed length. The length limits are documented in the Google Ads Help Center.
Common causes	Incorrectly specifying empty default text in an ad parameter tag. Use {param1}, not {param1:}.
How to handle	N/A
Prevention tips	Validate the length of the line before making the request.

AdGroupAdError
AD_GROUP_AD_LABEL_ALREADY_EXISTS
Summary	This label is already associated with some of these ads.
Common causes	You’ve tried to associate the label with ads that already have them associated.
How to handle	N/A
Prevention tips	Check first if the label to be added is already associated with the ads.
CANNOT_OPERATE_ON_REMOVED_ADGROUPAD
Summary	An operation attempted to update a removed ad.
Common causes	Once an ad is removed, it can no longer be updated (including changes to its status).
How to handle	N/A
Prevention tips	Ensure that your code does not attempt to update removed ads.

AdGroupCriterionError
INVALID_KEYWORD_TEXT
Summary	The keyword text contains invalid characters. A list of valid characters is available on the Google Ads Help Center.
Common causes	The keyword text contains invalid characters.
How to handle	N/A
Prevention tips	Validate the keyword text in your application before making a request to the API.

AdGroupError
DUPLICATE_ADGROUP_NAME
Summary	An ad group is being added or renamed, but the name is already being used by another ad group.
Common causes	Creating a new ad group with the name of an existing active or paused ad group.
How to handle	Log the error and/or present an error message to the user, optionally suggesting a unique ad group name or showing the list of names in use.
Prevention tips	N/A

AssetError
DUPLICATE_ASSET
Summary	Two operations in a single request contain a create operation for an asset with the same binary data.
Common causes	A mutate request contains duplicated create operations containing the same binary data.
How to handle	Create the asset in a separate request then link to it in the subsequent request, or use a temporary ID within the same request.
Prevention tips	N/A

AuthenticationError
CLIENT_CUSTOMER_ID_INVALID
Summary	Client customer ID is not a number.
Common causes	You've specified your client customer ID incorrectly.
How to handle	N/A
Prevention tips	123-456-7890 should be 1234567890. Visit our Quickstart for details.
CLIENT_CUSTOMER_ID_IS_REQUIRED
Summary	Client customer ID was not specified in the HTTP header.
Common causes	You've not specified your client customer ID in the HTTP header.
How to handle	N/A
Prevention tips	Client customer ID is required for all cases except for when using CustomerService.GetCustomer. Therefore, make sure you've specified it in the HTTP header. Consider using our client libraries, as they handle this for you.
CUSTOMER_NOT_FOUND
Summary	No account found for the customer ID provided in the header.
Common causes	Trying to access an account that was just created before the account is established in the backend.
How to handle	Wait an initial five minutes, then retry every 30 seconds.
Prevention tips	Wait a few minutes after the account is created before issuing requests against it.
GOOGLE_ACCOUNT_COOKIE_INVALID
Summary	The access token in the request header is either invalid or has expired.
Common causes	The access token has been invalidated.
How to handle	Request a new token following these guidelines. If you're using one of our client libraries, consult its documentation on how to refresh the token.
Prevention tips	Store and reuse access tokens until they expire.
NOT_ADS_USER
Summary	The Google account used to generate the access token is not associated with any Google Ads account.
Common causes	The login information provided corresponds to a Google account that does not have Google Ads enabled.
How to handle	Make sure to log in with a valid Google Ads account (typically your manager account) for the OAuth flow. You can also invite the Google account to access an existing Google Ads account by logging in to your manager account, selecting the customer or manager account in question, navigating to "Tools and Settings > Access and security," then adding the Google account email address.
Prevention tips	N/A
OAUTH_TOKEN_INVALID
Summary	OAuth access token in the header is not valid.
Common causes	Your access token passed with the HTTP header was not correct.
How to handle	N/A
Prevention tips	Make sure you've passed the correct access token associated with your account. It's sometimes confused with refresh tokens and authorization codes. If you would like to get a credential that can access all client accounts under a manager account, make sure you get the refresh token for the manager account. Review our guide for details about access token and refresh token. For more details, consult the OAuth2 Authentication guide.

AuthorizationError
CUSTOMER_NOT_ENABLED
Summary	The customer account cannot be accessed because it is not in an enabled state.
Common causes	This error occurs when the customer account hasn't finished signup or has been deactivated.
How to handle	Log into the Google Ads UI and ensure that you've completed the signup process for this account. For deactivated accounts, see this Help Center article.
Prevention tips	You can proactively check if a customer account is deactivated by checking for a status of CANCELLED.
DEVELOPER_TOKEN_NOT_APPROVED
Summary	The developer token is only approved for use with test accounts and attempted to access a non-test account.
Common causes	A test developer token was used to access a non-test account.
How to handle	Ensure that you do in fact want to access a non-test account. If so, then you need to apply to have your developer token upgraded to Standard or Basic access.
Prevention tips	N/A
DEVELOPER_TOKEN_PROHIBITED
Summary	The developer token is not allowed with the project sent in the request.
Common causes	Each Google API Console project can be associated with the developer token from only one manager account. Once you make a Google Ads API request, the developer token is permanently paired to the Google API Console project. If you do not use a new Google API Console project, you'll get a DEVELOPER_TOKEN_PROHIBITED error when making a request.
How to handle	N/A
Prevention tips	If switching to a developer token under a new manager account, you'll need to create a new Google API Console project for Google Ads API requests that use the new manager's token.
USER_PERMISSION_DENIED
Summary	The authorized customer does not have access to the operating customer.
Common causes	Authenticating as a user with access to a manager account but not specifying login-customer-id in the request.
How to handle	N/A
Prevention tips	Specify the login-customer-id as the manager account ID without hyphens (-). Client libraries have built in support for this, or see our guide.

BiddingError
BID_TOO_MANY_FRACTIONAL_DIGITS
Summary	The bid value is not an exact multiple of the minimum unit of the account's currency. For example, US$0.015 (15000 in micros) is not a valid bid.
Common causes	N/A
How to handle	N/A
Prevention tips	Verify that bids are multiples of the minimum unit for the account's currency.
BID_TOO_BIG
Summary	The error is returned even though the bid is within the campaign budget.
Common causes	N/A
How to handle	N/A
Prevention tips	Check if the account is participating in Google Grants for Google Ads. If so, restrict CPC bids to the maximum prescribed by the program.

CampaignBudgetError
MONEY_AMOUNT_LESS_THAN_CURRENCY_MINIMUM_CPC
Summary	The budget amount is too small.
Common causes	N/A
How to handle	N/A
Prevention tips	Verify that budget amount is greater than or equal to the minimum unit for the account's currency.
NON_MULTIPLE_OF_MINIMUM_CURRENCY_UNIT
Summary	The budget amount will have too many significant decimal places when converted from a micro amount to an amount in the account's currency.
Common causes	N/A
How to handle	N/A
Prevention tips	Verify that budget amount is divisible by the minimum unit for the account's currency.

CampaignError
DUPLICATE_CAMPAIGN_NAME
Summary	A campaign is being added or renamed, but the name is already being used by another campaign.
Common causes	Creating a new campaign with the name of an existing active or paused campaign.
How to handle	Log the error and/or present an error message to the user, optionally suggesting a unique campaign name or showing the list of names in use.
Prevention tips	N/A

CriterionError
KEYWORD_HAS_INVALID_CHARS
Summary	Adding / editing keywords that contain invalid characters.
Common causes	Use special characters like ! @ % * in the keywords.
How to handle	N/A
Prevention tips	Make sure you don’t use any unallowed characters in the keywords. Consult the Add keywords Help Center article for more information.

DistinctError
DUPLICATE_ELEMENT
Summary	The request contains two parameters that are identical and redundant.
Common causes	N/A
How to handle	N/A
Prevention tips	Remove duplicates (operations, parameters, list elements) before making the request. Look for fields that have the DistinctElements constraint.

InternalError
DEADLINE_EXCEEDED
Summary	The request timed out and could not be completed quickly enough to return a response.
Common causes	A search request was made that generated too large of a response, or a mutate request was too large to process.
How to handle	Wait for about 30 seconds, then retry the request. If the error persists try breaking the request into multiple, smaller requests that can be completed more quickly.
Prevention tips	Review our guide on report segmentation to understand how it can affect the size of a response. Be aware of the limitations of the gRPC transport layer.
INTERNAL_ERROR
Summary	Something unexpected happened while processing the request.
Common causes	The API isn't functioning correctly due to a bug.
How to handle	Retry any requests that fail with this error. Best practices suggest using exponential backoff on retries.
Prevention tips	N/A
TRANSIENT_ERROR
Summary	A transient internal error has occurred, and a retry should be performed.
Common causes	This error occurs when the API internally encounters a temporary issue.
How to handle	Retry any requests that fail with this error. Best practices suggest using exponential backoff on retries.
Prevention tips	N/A

InvalidGrantError
invalid_grant (Malformed auth code)
Summary	The authorization code exchanged for OAuth tokens was malformed.
Common causes	This happens when attempting to generate a refresh token for a user that has already granted access to the requesting application. For example, this can happen when running the Generate User credentials example more than once for the same OAuth client credentials and authorizing user.
How to handle	In order to regenerate a refresh token for a given combination of authorizing user and OAuth client credentials, follow these instructions to revoke an existing refresh token. Note that revoking a token will render it unusable for Google Ads API access, and will invalidate any access tokens that the refresh token was used to generate.
Prevention tips	Make sure to store your refresh token in a secure location to avoid the need for regeneration.

MutateError
RESOURCE_NOT_FOUND
Summary	The request referred to a resource that could not be found.
Common causes	The request attempted to mutate or otherwise reference a resource that does not exist or has been removed. Or the given resource name for the resource is malformed.
How to handle	Use a search request to retrieve the resource name for an existing resource before submitting a mutate request. Review our client library guides, which include documentation on how to construct valid resource names in every supported language.
Prevention tips	Do not create resource names manually. Use one of the helper methods offered by our client libraries.

NotEmptyError
EMPTY_LIST
Summary	A required list is empty.
Common causes	Passing in an empty list of operations to a mutate method.
How to handle	N/A
Prevention tips	N/A

QuotaError
RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED
Summary	A system frequency limit has been exceeded.
Common causes	Sending too many requests in a short period of time.
How to handle	N/A
Prevention tips	Set up short delays between requests or combine more operations in fewer requests.

RangeError
TOO_LOW
Summary	A value was lower than the minimum allowed.
Common causes	Forgetting to specify an ID, which results in a value of 0 being passed in.
How to handle	N/A
Prevention tips	Note any range limitations documented in the API reference.

RequestError
INVALID_INPUT
Summary	The request is malformed.
Common causes	The URL is malformed or the contents of the request are malformed.
How to handle	N/A
Prevention tips	N/A

RequestError
REQUIRED_FIELD_MISSING
Summary	The request is missing required information.
Common causes	Missing required fields when attempting to add an entity.
How to handle	Log the error and/or present an error message to the user. The fieldPath attribute of the error indicates which field is missing.
Prevention tips	Read the API reference to find out which fields are required.

ResourceCountLimitExceededError
RESOURCE_LIMIT
Summary	The request is attempting to create a resource that would cause the total number of those resources to exceed a specified limit.
Common causes	There are multiple limits on the number of resources that can exist in certain contexts.
How to handle	Identify the limit that's being encountered by reviewing the System Limits guide. Either reuse an existing resource, or remove resources to create space for new ones.
Prevention tips	Review the API's System Limits and use search queries to monitor the number of resources that have limitations.

StringLengthError
TOO_LONG
Summary	The string assigned to the specified field is longer than the limit.
Common causes	Headlines or descriptions for ads contain too much text.
How to handle	Identify the limit that's being encountered by reviewing the System Limits guide, modify the string accordingly and resend the request.
Prevention tips	Review the API's System Limits to be aware of string length limits.