HTTP Response Codes & Errors

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Codes summary

A summary of HTTP Response Codes returned by the Xero API is shown below.

HTTP Code	Summary	Description
200	OK	Successful API call. Learn more
400	Bad Request	A validation exception has occurred. Learn more
401	Unauthorized	Invalid authorization credentials. Learn more
404	Not Found	The resource you have specified cannot be found
500	Internal Error	An unhandled error with the Xero API. Contact the Xero API team if problems persist
501	Not Implemented	The method you have called has not been implemented (e.g. POST Organisation)
503	Rate Limit Exceeded	The API rate limit for your organisation/application pairing has been exceeded. Learn more
503	Not Available	API is currently unavailable – typically due to a scheduled outage – try again soon. Learn more
503	Organisation offline	The organisation temporarily cannot be connected to. Learn more

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Common response codes

HTTP 200 OK

• The Xero API will return with a HTTP 200 for successful requests
• If you are utlilising the summarizeErrors=false querystring parameter you’ll always receive a HTTP 200 response even though some of the elements may have failed. Learn more

HTTP 400 Bad Request

HTTP 400 responses include an “ApiException" element in the response that contains a useful summary of the reason for the error.

<ApiException>
  <ErrorNumber>10</ErrorNumber>
  <Type>ValidationException</Type>
  <Message>A validation exception occurred</Message>
  <Elements>
    <DataContractBase xsi:type="Invoice">
      <ValidationErrors>
        <ValidationError>
          <Message>Email address must be valid.</Message>
        </ValidationError>
      </ValidationErrors>
   </DataContractBase>
  </Elements>
</ApiException>

HTTP 401 Unauthorized

A customer may disconnect your application from within Xero at anytime so at the very least you should implement functionality to handle a 401 error and allow a customer to easily reauthorize your application.

A description of the reason for the error is returned in response using the following format.

oauth_problem=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx&oauth_problem_advice=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Learn more about unauthorized errors

HTTP 503 Rate Limit Exceeded

An application can make up to 5000 API calls against a particular Xero organisation in a rolling 24 hour period and 60 calls against a particular Xero organisation in a rolling 60 second period. The following will be returned in the body if you exceed a rate limit.

oauth_problem=rate%20limit%20exceeded&oauth_problem_advice=please%20wait%20before%20retrying%20the%20xero%20api

Learn more about limits

HTTP 503 Not Available

From time to time we might require a short outage to carry out maintenance or upgrades. In most cases the Xero API will respond with a HTTP 503 when it is not available, and provide one of the following response bodies:

The Xero API is currently offline for maintenance

The Xero API is temporarily unavailable

HTTP 503 Organisation Offline

A specific organisation may not be available though the Xero APIs themselves are online. In this instance, the below response will be returned. Typically this situation may occur for several minutes. A retry interval of 5mins or so is recommended.

The Organisation is offline