{"slug": "how-i-fixed-openai-assistants-api-timeout-errors-in-production", "title": "How I Fixed OpenAI Assistants API Timeout Errors in Production", "summary": "A developer fixed timeout errors in the OpenAI Assistants API by making the timeout configurable. The hardcoded 60-second limit was too short for long sessions, causing premature failures. The solution involved increasing the timeout to 150 seconds and updating the polling loop.", "body_md": "It was during a live client demo.\n\nThe AI was mid-session. The user was answering questions.\n\nEverything was going perfectly.\n\nThen — this:\n\n\"Sorry, there was an error processing your request. Please try again.\"\n\nThe client looked at us. My manager looked at me. I looked at my laptop\n\nand wanted to disappear.\n\nFirst thing I checked: OpenAI dashboard. No failed runs. Nothing.\n\nI checked our server logs. There it was:\n\n`run_timeout`\n\n— after exactly 60 seconds\n\nBut here's the thing — the run wasn't failing. It was just slow.\n\nOpenAI was still processing. Our backend gave up at 60s.\n\nOpenAI finished at 87s.\n\nWe quit too early.\n\nThe longer a session gets, the more history OpenAI has to process.\n\nEarly in a session: 3–5 seconds.\n\nMid-session (10+ messages): 30–50 seconds.\n\nLong sessions: 60–90+ seconds.\n\nOur hardcoded limit of 60 seconds wasn't matching reality.\n\nStep 1: Made the timeout configurable via environment variable.\n\n```\n  # .env\n  OPENAI_RUN_TIMEOUT_MS=150000\n```\n\nStep 2: Updated the polling loop to use it.\n\n``` js\n  const TIMEOUT_MS = parseInt(process.env.OPENAI_RUN_TIMEOUT_MS) || 150000;\n  const TERMINAL = ['completed', 'failed', 'cancelled', 'expired', 'requires_action'];\n\n  while (!TERMINAL.includes(runStatus.status)) {\n    if (Date.now() - startTime >= TIMEOUT_MS) throw new Error('run_timeout');\n    await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 1000));\n    runStatus = await openai.beta.threads.runs.retrieve(threadId, run.id);\n  }\n```\n\nStep 3: Deployed. No more errors.\n\nI'm exploring `runs.stream()`\n\n— streaming responses in real time,\n\nno polling, no timeouts. Will write a follow-up once it's in production.\n\nHave you hit this before? How did you handle it?\n\nDrop it in the comments.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/how-i-fixed-openai-assistants-api-timeout-errors-in-production", "canonical_source": "https://dev.to/admin_spoctest_e7b4c923a/how-i-fixed-openai-assistants-api-timeout-errors-in-production-4dpi", "published_at": "2026-06-30 06:55:08+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-30 07:19:15.126422+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["large-language-models", "developer-tools"], "entities": ["OpenAI", "OpenAI Assistants API"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/how-i-fixed-openai-assistants-api-timeout-errors-in-production", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/how-i-fixed-openai-assistants-api-timeout-errors-in-production.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/how-i-fixed-openai-assistants-api-timeout-errors-in-production.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/how-i-fixed-openai-assistants-api-timeout-errors-in-production.jsonld"}}