Intermittent 500 Internal Server Error when calling Twitch Helix Chat Announcements API

API
1

We are intermittently receiving HTTP 500 – Internal Server Error responses while calling the Twitch Helix Chat Announcements API.

The issue does not occur consistently. The same request payload, headers, and access token sometimes succeeds and sometimes fails with a 500 error.

API Endpoint

POST https://api.twitch.tv/helix/chat/announcements

Query Parameters

  • broadcaster_id=490611xxx

  • moderator_id=490611xxx

  • scope=moderator:manage:announcements

Request Headers

Accept: application/json
Content-Type: application/json
Client-ID: <client_id>
Authorization: Bearer <access_token>
User-Agent: axios/1.13.2

Request Body

{
  "message": "The Best in creator-led custom content"
}

Observed Behavior

  • API intermittently returns:

    HTTP/1.1 500 Internal Server Error

  • Retrying the same request after a time often succeeds without changes.

Error Log (Axios)

We are using Node.js with Axios. Below is a shortened error summary;

AxiosError: Request failed with status code 500
code: ERR_BAD_RESPONSE
status: 500
data: { error: 'Internal Server Error', status: 500, message: '' }

Additional Notes

  • The access token is valid and has the required scope (moderator:manage:announcements)

  • The broadcaster and moderator IDs are correct

  • The same announcement message sometimes succeeds and sometimes fails

  • No changes are made between successful and failed requests

  • This is impacting production reliability due to the non-deterministic behavior

2

As noted on discord and others finding this post

This is not a valid param for this API and scope is only relevant on oAuth

TLDR just try again afte a momnet

Sounds like Twitch was under load, and HTTP 500 is “server screwed up” and nothing you can fix.

And as per DIscord discussion the issue has cleared up already

3

Thanks for the response and the clear explanation.
Let’s keep this on the Twitch end and say it was on their end and they fixed it.