diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index f0afc0227e..9e490d4313 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -5847,9 +5847,9 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "reqwest-eventsource"
-version = "0.4.0"
+version = "0.5.0"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "8f03f570355882dd8d15acc3a313841e6e90eddbc76a93c748fd82cc13ba9f51"
+checksum = "f529a5ff327743addc322af460761dff5b50e0c826b9e6ac44c3195c50bb2026"
 dependencies = [
  "eventsource-stream",
  "futures-core",
diff --git a/server/bleep/Cargo.toml b/server/bleep/Cargo.toml
index 274bd06d2d..df378ae4cd 100644
--- a/server/bleep/Cargo.toml
+++ b/server/bleep/Cargo.toml
@@ -97,7 +97,7 @@ tower-http = { version = "0.4.4", features = ["auth", "cors", "catch-panic", "fs
 # api integrations
 octocrab = { version = "0.25.1", features = ["rustls", "rustls-webpki-tokio"] }
 reqwest = { version = "0.11.20", features = ["rustls-tls-webpki-roots", "cookies", "gzip"], default-features = false }
-reqwest-eventsource = "0.4.0"
+reqwest-eventsource = "0.5.0"
 secrecy = { version = "0.8.0", features = ["serde"] }
 
 # file processing
diff --git a/server/bleep/src/llm_gateway.rs b/server/bleep/src/llm_gateway.rs
index 4cfc0c04ae..e60c20d794 100644
--- a/server/bleep/src/llm_gateway.rs
+++ b/server/bleep/src/llm_gateway.rs
@@ -187,8 +187,8 @@ impl From<&api::Message> for tiktoken_rs::ChatCompletionRequestMessage {
 }
 
 enum ChatError {
-    BadRequest,
-    TooManyRequests,
+    BadRequest(String),
+    TooManyRequests(String),
     Other(anyhow::Error),
 }
 
@@ -329,23 +329,23 @@ impl Client {
         let mut delay = INITIAL_DELAY;
         for _ in 0..self.max_retries {
             match self.chat_stream_oneshot(messages, functions).await {
-                Err(ChatError::TooManyRequests) => {
+                Err(ChatError::TooManyRequests(_)) => {
                     warn!(?delay, "too many LLM requests, retrying with delay...");
                     tokio::time::sleep(delay).await;
                     delay = Duration::from_millis((delay.as_millis() as f32 * SCALE_FACTOR) as u64);
                 }
-                Err(ChatError::BadRequest) => {
+                Err(ChatError::BadRequest(body)) => {
                     // We log the messages in a separate `debug!` statement so that they can be
                     // filtered out, due to their verbosity.
                     debug!("LLM message list: {messages:?}");
-                    error!("LLM request failed, request not eligible for retry");
-                    bail!("request not eligible for retry");
+                    error!("LLM request failed, request not eligible for retry: {body}");
+                    bail!("request failed (not eligible for retry): {body}");
                 }
                 Err(ChatError::Other(e)) => {
                     // We log the messages in a separate `debug!` statement so that they can be
                     // filtered out, due to their verbosity.
                     debug!("LLM message list: {messages:?}");
-                    error!("LLM request failed due to unknown reason: {e}");
+                    error!("LLM request failed due to unknown reason: {e:?}");
                     return Err(e);
                 }
                 Ok(stream) => return Ok(stream),
@@ -399,20 +399,30 @@ impl Client {
 
         match event_source.next().await {
             Some(Ok(reqwest_eventsource::Event::Open)) => {}
-            Some(Err(reqwest_eventsource::Error::InvalidStatusCode(status)))
+            Some(Err(reqwest_eventsource::Error::InvalidStatusCode(status, response)))
                 if status == StatusCode::BAD_REQUEST =>
             {
-                warn!("bad request to LLM");
-                return Err(ChatError::BadRequest);
+                let body = response
+                    .text()
+                    .await
+                    .map_err(|e| ChatError::Other(anyhow!(e)))?;
+                warn!("bad request to LLM: {body}");
+                return Err(ChatError::BadRequest(body));
             }
-            Some(Err(reqwest_eventsource::Error::InvalidStatusCode(status)))
+            Some(Err(reqwest_eventsource::Error::InvalidStatusCode(status, response)))
                 if status == StatusCode::TOO_MANY_REQUESTS =>
             {
-                warn!("too many requests to LLM");
-                return Err(ChatError::TooManyRequests);
+                let body = response
+                    .text()
+                    .await
+                    .map_err(|e| ChatError::Other(anyhow!(e)))?;
+                warn!("too many requests to LLM: {body}");
+                return Err(ChatError::TooManyRequests(body));
             }
             Some(Err(e)) => {
-                return Err(ChatError::Other(anyhow!("event source error: {:?}", e)));
+                return Err(ChatError::Other(anyhow!(
+                    "failed to make event source request to answer API: {e}",
+                )));
             }
             _ => {
                 return Err(ChatError::Other(anyhow!("event source failed to open")));
diff --git a/server/bleep/src/webserver/quota.rs b/server/bleep/src/webserver/quota.rs
index 5c0c317a1e..b6e9677a0a 100644
--- a/server/bleep/src/webserver/quota.rs
+++ b/server/bleep/src/webserver/quota.rs
@@ -50,7 +50,13 @@ async fn get_request<T: for<'a> Deserialize<'a>>(
         .map_err(Error::internal)?;
 
     if response.status().is_success() {
-        response.json().await.map_err(Error::internal).map(Json)
+        let body = response.text().await.map_err(Error::internal)?;
+        match serde_json::from_str::<T>(&body) {
+            Ok(t) => Ok(Json(t)),
+            Err(_) => Err(Error::internal(format!(
+                "quota call return invalid JSON: {body}"
+            ))),
+        }
     } else {
         let status = response.status();
         match response.text().await {