HTTP response codes and errors

The APIs return the following HTTP statuses in the responses:

HTTP status	Description
200 OK	Request successful
201 Created	Request successful, resource created
204 No Content	Request successful, but empty result
400 Bad Request	Invalid request, see the error for details
401 Unauthorized	Invalid credentials
403 Forbidden	Authentication ok, but credentials lack authorization
404 Not Found	The resource was not found
409 Conflict	Unsuccessful due to conflicting resource
423 Locked	Can be caused by transient errors outside our control. Can also occur if an integrator repeatedly sends calls several times within a very short time frame
429 Too Many Requests	See more details in rate limiting topic.
500 Server Error	An internal Vipps MobilePay problem.

In general:

• 2XX responses: Everything is OK.
• 4XX responses: Client error. You have a problem, and you must correct it.
• 5XX responses: Server error. We have a problem, and we must correct it.

For some errors (like 423 and 429) the solution is to retry, using the Idempotency-Key header to avoid duplication. See the API specification.

The HTTP status overview here is quite good: HTTP Status Codes Glossary.

The authoritative reference is: RFC 9110: HTTP Semantics.

Errors

The standard response body format for our error messages follows RFC 7807.

For example, an error sent together with a HTTP 400 Bad Request:

HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request
Content-Type: application/problem+json
Content-Language: en

{
   "type":"https://developer.vippsmobilepay.com/api-name/v1/validation-error",
   "title":"Your request parameters didn't validate.",
   "detail":"The request body contains one or more validation errors.",
   "instance":"urn:uuid:123e4567-e89b-12d3-a456-426655440000",
   "status":"400",
   "extraDetails":[
      {
         "name":"amount",
         "reason":"Must be a positive integer larger than 100"
      },
      {
         "name":"URL",
         "reason":"Must use HTTPS and validate according to the API specification"
      }
   ]
}

info

The extraDetails in the example above may be different for some errors - for instance invalidParams - for some APIs, but new APIs will use extraDetails.

note

• Most of the APIs use this error format, but legacy APIs may not. For details: See the API's specification.
• Some errors are sent from Microsoft Azure, and not the APIs. These include 401, 403, 422 and 429. These errors may have a different format, as they are not configurable.
• It is the integrator's responsibility to monitor and handle all errors.

API specific references

See error descriptions in the specific API guide sections:

• ePayment API FAQ
• eCom API FAQ
• Login API.

Why do I get HTTP 400 Bad Request?

It is because you are making an incorrect API request. The response body contains information about what you are doing wrong.

Some common errors:

• Invalid API keys.
• Invalid amount.
• callbackUrl is invalid.
• Captured amount exceeds the reserved amount. You can not capture a higher amount than the user has accepted.
• Cannot refund more than captured amount.
• User unknown. The phone number is either incorrectly formatted, is not a Vipps or MobilePay user, or the user is under 15 years old and cannot pay businesses. Vipps MobilePay cannot give more details. This error also occurs if using a non-Norwegian phone number. Look for related questions in this FAQ.

Why do I get HTTP 401 Unauthorized?

This means you are using the wrong API keys or an incorrect Authorization header.

The full error message, and the reason for the 401 error, should be in the response body, such as:

• Access denied due to invalid subscription key. Make sure to provide a valid key for an active subscription.
• Access denied due to missing subscription key. Make sure to include subscription key when making requests to an API.
• Subscription not found.

If the error message is Something went wrong, please try again later, it normally indicates that the provided Authorization header (the access token) is invalid. Check that the access token is in the correct format and that it has not expired. See Access token API.

info

We have never found any problems with the API keys themselves. Every HTTP 401 Unauthorized has been caused by incorrect use.

Please follow these steps to make sure everything is correct:

1. Make sure that you are using a valid access token. See Get an access token for details, how long it is valid, etc. Remember to use Authorization: Bearer <access token goes here>. If you do not include Bearer, you may get a HTTP 401 Unauthorized error.
2. Check that you are using the correct API credentials for the MSN (Merchant Serial Number) you are using::
   • client_id
   • client_secret
   • Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key (the subscription key) See API keys for more details.
3. Make sure that you have copied all the characters in the client_id, client_secret and Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key. It seems that double-clicking to copy sometimes omits the trailing = sign(s), and maybe others.
4. Check that you are using the same subscription key for both the access token and the payment requests. If you have a valid access token, but for a different MSN, you will get an error. If you are caching the access token: Check that too. See: Why do I get errorCode 35 "Requested Order not found"?
5. Check the API specification for the correct spelling of all the header parameters. They are case-sensitive: Authorization: Bearer <access token goes here> is not the same as Authorization: bearer <access token goes here>.
6. Make sure you are using the right environment and check that you are using the correct API keys for the right sales unit in that environment. The test environment is completely separate from the production environment, and both the MSN and the API keys are different.
7. Check both the HTTP response header and the response body from our API for errors. For most errors the body contains an explanation of what went wrong. See: HTTP response codes and errors.
8. If you are a partner, and you are using partner keys: Double check everything described here: Partner keys. A common mistake is to mix Merchant-Serial-Number (used in the HTTP header) and merchantSerialNumber (used in the request body).

You can log in to portal.vippsmobilepay.com to double-check your API keys, sales units and API products. See: Getting the API keys.

You should also ensure you have access to the correct API. See: API products.

If you are absolutely, completely 100 % sure that you have done everything correctly, and it still doesn't work, you can regenerate the API keys on portal.vippsmobilepay.com. This should never be necessary, and we do not know of any situations where this fixes any known problem, so it's our very last suggestion. The old API keys will of course stop working when they have been regenerated.

info

Vipps MobilePay cannot help with the debugging of your code, we can only help with the API requests and response. Please do not send us your source code asking us to fix it for you.

Why do I get HTTP 403 Forbidden?

Merchants that only have access to the Login API and attempt to use the ePayment API (or eCom API) will get this error, with Merchant Not Allowed for Ecommerce Payment in the response body.

This is because the compliance checks required for making payments are not done for merchants that only need the Login API. If you need access to the ePayment API (or eCom API), you can apply for this on portal.vippsmobilepay.com.

🔥 For partners 🔥 Partners can get this error if they use Partner keys, but:

• Send a Merchant-Serial-Number header for a sales unit (MSN) that is not connected to them as a partner. Merchants can check which partner is connected in the portal. In order to get access to a sales unit the partner must contact partner@vippsmobilepay.com with information about merchant organization number and MSN.
• Do not send the Merchant-Serial-Number header. See: HTTP headers.

Why do I get HTTP 429 Too Many Requests?

We rate-limit some API endpoints to prevent incorrect usage. The rate-limiting has nothing to do with our total capacity, but is designed to stop incorrect use.

See:

• ePayment API Rate limiting
• Recurring API Rate limiting
• eCom API Rate limiting

Why do I get HTTP 404 Not Found?

It depends. You must check the body of the response.

It could be that you are attempting to call a non-existent API endpoint, and it could be that you are using the API keys for one MSN for an orderId that belongs to a different MSN.

See: Why do I get errorCode 35 "Requested Order not found"?.

Why do I get HTTP 500 Internal Server Error?

Something might be wrong on our side, and we are working to fix it.

But: It's usually a problem with your request, and that our input validation does not catch it. In other words: We should have returned HTTP 400 Bad Request.

Some tips:

• Please make sure the JSON payload in your API request validates. That is the most common source of this type of error.
• See the API's "Quick Start" guide and the corresponding Postman collection to see the correct API requests.
• See the API's API specification.
• You will get a HTTP 500 Internal Server Error error if the MSN is sent as an integer: merchantSerialNumber":654321 instead of a string: merchantSerialNumber":"654321".
• The same will happen if the amount is not an integer.
• Please check the capitalization of the parameters. We will return HTTP 500 Internal Server Error if the incorrect fallback is used instead of the correct fallBack.

Check both the HTTP response header and the response body from our API for errors. For most errors the body contains an explanation of what went wrong.

note

If you get a HTTP 500 Internal Server Error in the test environment, it may be a glitch in the SQL server. We are running a "weaker" instance than in production, and on very rare occasions this can cause SQL errors that result in a HTTP 500 Server Error. Retry the request, and see if it helps.

See:

• ePayment API: What do all the errors mean?
• eCom API: Errors.
• Status page.

Why do I get errorCode 35 "Requested Order not found"?

This is either because you are specifying an incorrect orderId, or because the payment with this orderId was initiated using the API keys for one sales unit (MSN), and you are attempting to get the details with the API keys for a different sales unit (MSN).

The orderId (and reference) is not globally unique, it's are only unique per MSN.

See:

• Why do I get HTTP 404 Not Found?
• Error codes.

Why do I get Merchant unavailable, deleted, deactivated or not allowed to make payments?

This means that the merchant is not available or active. This can be caused by one of the following:

• A merchant can be deactivated if they haven't confirmed their information with us. Merchants are required to periodically confirm the information we have saved about them. We are required by law to request this confirmation. We send multiple emails to notify merchants that they must log on to portal.vippsmobilepay.com to confirm their information. If the merchant doesn't confirm within 30 days from the first email, they will automatically be deactivated.
• A merchant can be deactivated if they have been deleted from Brønnøysundregistrene, the Norwegian business registry or if they have changed their organization type (e.g., from ENK to AS). Please check that the merchant's organization number is still active in the Business registry.
• A sales unit can be deactivated on portal.vippsmobilepay.com. A merchant sometimes does this "by accident", without being aware of the consequences. If a sales unit has been incorrectly deactivated, the merchant can reactivate it again on portal.vippsmobilepay.com.
• Partners using partner keys can get this error if the partner itself is deactivated, even though the sales unit (that it is acting on behalf of) is active.

note

To reactivate a merchant: First check on portal.vippsmobilepay.com, and if there is not enough information there: contact customer service.

Why do I get "Merchant Not Allowed for Ecommerce Payment"?

This error occurs if you attempt to use a payment related API with a sales unit (MSN) that is only approved for the Login API.

Your sales unit will need to go through a different set of regulatory and legally required checks to get access to the payment APIs. Place an order for Payment Integration.

Note that all sales units that have been approved for the eCom API can also use the Login API, but not the other way around.

See: Why do I get HTTP 403 Forbidden?

Why do I get error 81 and User not registered with Vipps?

The most common reasons are:

• The phone number is incorrectly formatted. We attempt to correct incorrectly formatted phone numbers instead of responding with HTTP 400 Bad Request. In cases where the phone number still fails, the error will be errorCode: 81. See the API specifications.
• The user is under 15 years old and cannot pay businesses.
• The phone number is not for a Vipps or MobilePay user.

Vipps MobilePay cannot give more details, as we cannot "leak" information about a user's age, whether a user has been blocked, whether a user has reached its spending limit, etc.

Why do I get an error about having the app installed and being 15 years old?

This can happen when:

• You attempt to use a real user in the test environment.
• You have a new test user and have not logged into the test app before trying to make payments, etc.

See: Test Environment (MT).

Why do I get Invalid MSN: 654321. Check your API keys on portal.vippsmobilepay.com and see the eCom FAQ for tips.?

This can happen when:

• A partner tries to use Partner keys for a sales unit that is not registered with them as partner.
• API keys for the test environment is used in the production environment, or opposite.
• Partner keys are used, but the Merchant-Serial-Number HTTP header is not used correctly.

Why do I get Invalid MSN: 654321. This MSN is not valid for the provided supermerchant ID.?

This can happen when the partner making the API request is using:

• API keys for the test environment in the production environment, or opposite
• An MSN for the test environment in the production environment, or opposite
• Partner keys without including the required Merchant-Serial-Number header

If the error message is Invalid MSN: This MSN is not valid for the provided supermerchant ID., with no MSN specified, it means that the Merchant-Serial-Number is missing in the request header.

Why do I get Invalid MSN: 654321. This MSN is not valid for the provided PSP ID.?

The full error message text is:

"Invalid MSN: 654321. This MSN is not valid for the provided PSP ID. Check that you are using the correct credentials for the right environment."

In addition to what the error message says, this error can occur if a PSP attempts to initiate payments for an MSN that was created by a different PSP. PSP's can only initiate payments for MSNs that are connected to them.

The solution is to create a new MSN with the PSP Signup API.

Why do I get a CORS error?

If you get a CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) error, it is an error on your own side, not an error from Vipps MobilePay. You are most likely attempting to call an API from a website, and your web server's configuration prevents it.

CORS is a protocol that enables scripts running on a browser client to interact with resources from a different origin. Sometimes servers are configured to prevent this, and that results in a CORS error.

We only receive the API requests over HTTPS, and we have no way of detecting how the request was made on the caller side - it all looks the same. We cannot fix the CORS error for you.

You can read more about CORS here: CORS Tutorial: A Guide to Cross-Origin Resource Sharing.