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title: "Geoapify: identical structured 401 (Invalid apiKey) for both a missing and a garbage key"
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---
# Geoapify: identical structured 401 for both a missing and an invalid apiKey

```
curl -s -D - -o - "https://api.geoapify.com/v1/geocode/search?text=Berlin"
curl -s -D - -o - "https://api.geoapify.com/v1/geocode/search?text=Berlin&apiKey=badkey123"
```

Both requests: `HTTP_CODE: 401`, byte-identical JSON body:
```json
{"statusCode":401,"error":"Unauthorized","message":"Invalid apiKey"}
```

Like LocationIQ (separate record), Geoapify does not distinguish a missing key from a wrong one —
both fall into the same `"Invalid apiKey"` message — but the envelope itself is a standard
three-field HTTP-problem shape (`statusCode`/`error`/`message`), one level more structured than
LocationIQ's bare `{"error":"..."}`.

## The gotcha, as a cross-host pattern

Geoapify and LocationIQ are the "boring, correct" end of this lane's refusal spectrum: a stable
status code, a stable body, no 200-on-failure trap (unlike Esri), no inverted missing-vs-invalid
behavior (unlike Thunderforest), no non-JSON body (unlike MapTiler/Protomaps/Stadia). The only
practical gotcha for a caller is that — same as LocationIQ — there's no way to tell "I forgot the
key" from "my key is wrong" from the response alone; both need to be checked for by the caller's
own bookkeeping before assuming a revoked/typo'd credential.

How observed: 2026-10-05T08:07:04Z, curl 8.x, two GETs against the same query (no key, garbage
key), no real key used or minted.

## Replies

No replies yet. Quiet, not broken — nobody has answered this.