Error codes reference for agents (preview)

[This article is prerelease documentation and is subject to change.]

When an agent in the new experience can't complete a turn, the Preview, Test, and Evaluate tabs show an error message together with a short error code. The error code identifies the cause so you can decide whether to retry, change your input, or contact your administrator.

Note

This article reflects the new experiences for creating agents and workflows in Microsoft Copilot Studio. The new agent experience is currently available as a production-ready preview. Learn about the two agent experiences in Classic vs. new agent experience. The new workflows experience is in public preview. Learn about the two workflows experiences in Workflows overview.

  • Public preview features aren't meant for production use and might have restricted functionality.
  • Production-ready and public previews are subject to supplemental terms of use.
  • Some capabilities available in the classic experience aren't yet available in the new experience.
  • Agents and workflows created in the new experience can't be converted to the classic experience.

Where you see error codes

Error codes appear in several places in the new experience:

Error code summary

The following table summarizes each error code, whether retrying usually helps, and whether the next step is on you (the maker), the end user, or your administrator.

Error code Meaning Retry usually helps Action owner
CONTENT_FILTERED A content safety policy blocked the request or response. No, with the same input End user
CONTEXT_LENGTH_EXCEEDED The request was too large for the model. No, with the same input Maker
CONVERSATION_BUSY A previous message is still being processed for the same conversation. Yes, after the previous turn finishes End user
CROSS_GEO_NOT_ALLOWED Your tenant's data residency settings prevent the request from being processed. No Administrator
DEPLOYMENT_NOT_FOUND The configured AI model deployment couldn't be located. No Administrator or maker
MODEL_CONSENT_DENIED The selected AI model isn't enabled for your organization. No Administrator
QUOTA_EXCEEDED Your organization's AI service quota is exhausted. Yes, after a longer wait Administrator
RATE_LIMIT_REACHED The AI service is temporarily busy. Yes, after a short wait End user
SYSTEM_ERROR An unexpected error occurred that requires investigation. Sometimes; try again before escalating Support

The rest of this article describes each code in detail.

CONTENT_FILTERED

A content safety policy blocked the request or response.

What it usually means

Microsoft's content safety policies cover categories such as hate, violence, sexual content, self-harm, jailbreak attempts, and indirect attacks. Either the user's request or the agent's response triggered one of these categories.

What to do

  • Rephrase the request to avoid the flagged content.
  • For agents that frequently hit this error on legitimate inputs, refine the Instructions on the Build tab to clarify the agent's intended scope. See Configure agent identity and instructions (preview).
  • The agent doesn't reveal which category was triggered, to prevent information leakage. If you need to investigate a specific case, contact your administrator with the conversation ID from the activity trace.

CONTEXT_LENGTH_EXCEEDED

The request exceeded the AI model's maximum input size.

What it usually means

The combined size of the agent's instructions, the conversation history, the tool definitions, and any tool results is larger than the model can process in a single turn. Long conversations and large numbers of tools are the most common causes.

What to do

CONVERSATION_BUSY

A previous message in the same conversation is still being processed.

What it usually means

The agent processes one turn at a time within a single conversation. If a second message is sent before the previous turn finishes, the new message can't start until the agent completes the in-progress turn.

What to do

  • Wait for the previous response to finish, then send the new message.
  • If you sent the second message accidentally (for example, by double-clicking Send), no action is needed. The duplicate is rejected and the original turn continues.
  • If the agent appears stuck on a previous turn, start a new conversation. See Manage preview conversations (preview).

CROSS_GEO_NOT_ALLOWED

Your tenant's data residency settings don't allow processing the request in another region.

What it usually means

Your organization's policy requires data to stay within a specific region, and no in-region deployment of the requested model is available for your tenant.

What to do

  • Contact your administrator to either:
    • Enable cross-region data movement for AI services in tenant settings, or
    • Provide an in-region deployment of the model.
  • As a maker, change the agent's model to one that's deployed in your region. See Select an agent model (preview).

DEPLOYMENT_NOT_FOUND

The configured AI model deployment couldn't be located.

What it usually means

The model your agent is configured to use was retired, removed, or is otherwise unavailable in your environment. This behavior can happen after a model is deprecated or after a change in tenant configuration.

What to do

  • On the Build tab, open the model picker and select an available model. See Select an agent model (preview).
  • If a previously available model disappeared, contact your administrator to verify the model deployment in your environment.

The AI model your agent uses isn't enabled for your tenant or environment.

What it usually means

Some models require explicit consent at the tenant or environment level before agents can use them. If consent isn't granted, the agent can't call the model.

What to do

  • Contact your administrator to enable the required model in Copilot Studio settings.
  • If your agent is configured with a fallback model, the agent automatically retries with the fallback. No action is needed in that case.
  • If you don't need this specific model, change the model on the Build tab. See Select an agent model (preview).

QUOTA_EXCEEDED

Your organization's quota for the AI service was exceeded.

What it usually means

Unlike RATE_LIMIT_REACHED, which is a short-lived burst limit, QUOTA_EXCEEDED indicates that a longer-running usage quota (typically tracked in tokens or requests over a billing period) was reached.

What to do

  • Wait and try again later. Quotas typically reset on a fixed schedule.
  • Contact your administrator to review the organization's AI service quota and request an increase if needed.
  • For ongoing development work, schedule large evaluation runs outside of peak hours.

RATE_LIMIT_REACHED

The AI service is temporarily busy and rejected the request.

What it usually means

Demand for the AI service spiked, or your organization sent many requests in a short time. This behavior is transient.

What to do

  • Wait a few seconds and try again.
  • For test runs in Evaluate, rerun the failed test cases.
  • If the error happens repeatedly, contact your administrator to review capacity.

SYSTEM_ERROR

An unexpected error occurred that doesn't match any of the more specific codes.

What it usually means

SYSTEM_ERROR is a catch-all for transient infrastructure problems, unexpected internal failures, or conditions that need engineering investigation. New error categories might also surface as SYSTEM_ERROR until they get a dedicated code in a future release.

What to do

  • Try the request again. The problem might be transient.
  • If the error persists, capture the conversation ID from the activity trace and the time of the failure, and then contact support.
  • If the problem affects many users at once, ask your administrator to check the Microsoft 365 service health dashboard.

Forward compatibility

The error code list might grow in future releases. If you build automation or dashboards on top of error codes (for example, in evaluation result processing), treat any unknown code the same as SYSTEM_ERROR: show a generic message and allow retry.

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