AetherGate
Plain-English AI Help · Updated October 2026

OpenAI API is down. What do I do?

Check what failed before switching everything. An outage, a rate limit and an empty account need different fixes.

Technical details: LLM gateway, AI agent orchestration, model routing, spend limits and context management. Reviewed October 7, 2026.

Key takeaways

  • Start with the problem and a result you can check.
  • Use a dollar limit before running an unattended job.
  • Read the receipt and verify important conclusions.

Read the error

Check the provider status page and your account usage. A 429 can be a rate, usage or spend limit; read the error details. A 503 can mean the model is overloaded.

For temporary errors, use a short delay and a limited number of retries. Honor Retry-After when supplied. Do not keep retrying an invalid key or a spending-limit error.

Technical details: Plain-English AI Help; provider API behavior, model costs and workflow controls. Test these choices on your own workload.

Try a backup you have tested

Connect another provider and choose allowed backup models. Test a real example before relying on a backup: another model can answer differently and may not support the same tool format.

Foreman records the requested model, the model that answered and whether a backup ran. If every allowed option fails, the job stops. Backups are useful, but they do not guarantee availability.

Technical details: Plain-English AI Help; provider API behavior, model costs and workflow controls. Test these choices on your own workload.

Sources

Let Foreman check a real job

Connect your AI accounts, describe the job, and set a dollar limit. The team produces a result and a record of its calls and reviews.

Open Foreman →

AetherGate Foreman (formerly Command): multi-model AI orchestration with BYOK, cost reservations and independent model review.

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Frequently asked questions

Can Foreman do this with my own AI accounts?

Yes. Connect your provider API keys, choose allowed models and set a job dollar limit. Your providers bill the AI work separately.

Does this guarantee a correct answer or an exact provider bill?

No. Model reviews can miss mistakes. AetherGate records costs at listed model prices, which can differ from provider invoices.