Error Codes

The following error codes are common to all methods of the Pub/Sub API:

Error HTTP Code Description Client Action
ALREADY_EXISTS 409 The topic or subscription already exists. This is an error on creation operations. The client cannot retry the operation.
BAD_GATEWAY 502 A server between the client and the backend Pub/Sub servers detected a temporary issue. If the error persists, contact Cloud Support. The client can retry the operation.
CANCELLED 499 The client has cancelled the request before it completed. The client can retry the operation, but the operation may have been executed on the previous call.
DEADLINE_EXCEEDED 504 The request did not complete in the time allocated. This can be caused by network issues from the client to the server, and it can also occur rarely on the server. On this error, the server may or may not execute the operation requested. Typically the client would retry the operation. Keep in mind that this may result in the operation being executed more than once on the server.
FAILED_PRECONDITION 400 Something must be done in the system to allow this operation. This is returned when:
 Depending on the circumstances:
  • Enable billing in the Cloud project.
  • Restore key access.
INTERNAL 500 This error indicates an internal server error; it should not occur. If this error occurs, please report to Cloud Support. The error should be transient. The client can retry the operation.
INVALID_ARGUMENT 400 The request is invalid; a required argument may be missing, exceeds limits, or has an invalid value. Review the error message for details. This error will fail again if the client retries it.
NOT_FOUND 404 The topic or subscription referenced has not been found. In the case of JSON requests, it may also happen if the URL path is not a correct REST path. For publish and pull operations, the propagation of an object creation may take a few seconds. The client can retry the operation if this is an object that was just created. Otherwise the client must create the resources.
PERMISSION_DENIED 403 The client does not have permission to perform the operation on the resource; or the resource does not exist, but the client does not have list permission on the parent resource (i.e., on the project). Correct the permission policies. Verify that the name of the resource is correct.
RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED 429 This error indicates that the quota for the cloud project has been exceeded, or that there are too many concurrent requests from the client. See the error message for details. Review the current quotas, and request additional quota if necessary. The client can retry with exponential backoff if this is a transient spike in traffic.
Finally, make sure that the quota is being counted against the intended project. For more discussion of this topic, see Project usage attribution.
UNAUTHENTICATED 401 The client is not authenticated properly. The client cannot retry. Fix the Pub/Sub client authentication.
UNAVAILABLE 503 The service was unable to process a request. This is most likely a transient condition and may be corrected by retrying with exponential backoff.