Consistent 404 from /v1/recommendations despite valid requests, tokens, and seeds

[dinocline]

Plan

Premium

Country

Device

(Macbook Pro 2021)

Operating System

(MacOS Sequoia 15.3)

My Question or Issue

Hi Spotify Dev Team and Community,

I'm currently working on a music discovery project using the Spotify Web API and have run into a persistent issue with the `/v1/recommendations` endpoint. I’ve followed all the documentation carefully and validated the request in multiple environments, but consistently receive a 404 response, even with valid tokens and known seed values.

For context: the Spotify user account I'm testing with is a Premium account and is correctly added under the app’s User Management settings.

Here’s a breakdown of what I’ve confirmed:
- Access token is fresh, includes the `user-top-read` scope, and works fine for `/me`, `/me/top/tracks`, etc.
- I've tested with seed values like `seed_genres=pop` and known track IDs such as `0VjIjW4GlUZAMYd2vXMi3b` (Blinding Lights by The Weeknd).
- Requests are sent via tools like Postman and Hoppscotch using this URL format:
`https://api.spotify.com/v1/recommendations?limit=1&seed_genres=pop`
- The `Authorization` header is correctly set as:
`Authorization: Bearer <access_token>`
- I’ve tested with two separate Spotify user accounts — including a brand new one — and still receive the same 404 result every time.

The rest of the API functions as expected — only the `/recommendations` endpoint is affected. I'm wondering if this could be a limitation for development apps, a regional restriction, or something else I might be missing?

I'd really appreciate any insight or suggestions. Thank you for the amazing tools and API — I’m excited to keep building!

Best,
Dina

[dinocline]

I'm in the US (sorry that didn't make it into my original post) 🙂

[Shiola]

I'm getting the same problem.
After testing with co-pilot on GitHub, it tells me:

This cURL log confirms that the 404 error is not a code or parameter issue—it is an issue with your Spotify account, token, or your app’s API access.

Here's what your cURL test tells us:

• You used a valid Bearer token for a user with premium, proper country, etc.
• You requested the correct endpoint:
  https://api.spotify.com/v1/recommendations?seed_genres=pop&limit=1
• You got HTTP/2 404 with no response body.
• This matches exactly what your Supabase logs showed.

---

What This Means

1. Your code and request formatting are correct.
   "pop" is a valid genre. The endpoint and parameters are correct.
2. The problem is not regional, not a typo, not a market, not a genre, not due to expired tokens.
3. The problem is on the Spotify side:
   • The account, app, or token is not authorized to use the recommendations endpoint, or
   • There is a Spotify bug or outage, or
   • Your app is restricted (e.g., in development mode, flagged, or missing required privileges).

[Ximzend]

Hi @dinocline and @Shiola 

Thanks for posting in the Spotify Community!

I understand you're encountering a 404 error when trying to use the Get Recommendations endpoint.

This is happening because the endpoint has been deprecated. Only applications that received a quota extension prior to the deprecation can still access it. You can find more details about this change on this page.

If you have any further questions, feel free to ask!