Troubleshooting AI
When something goes wrong with TimelyChurch's AI features, you will usually see one of a small handful of error messages. This article explains what each one means and what to do next.
"AI service temporarily unavailable. Please try again."
What you'll see: This message appears in the chat window after you send a question, or as a flash error after clicking a "Generate" button.
What it means: TimelyChurch tried to reach xAI Grok (the underlying model provider) and got an error response back -- typically a 5xx status code, a rate-limit reply, or a malformed response.
What to do:
- Wait 30 seconds and try again. Most provider blips are transient. The chat preserves your last message so you can resend it.
- Try a shorter question. Very large prompts occasionally fail; rephrasing more concisely often works.
- Check the xAI status page. If xAI itself is having an outage, all churches on the platform will see the same error.
- If it persists for more than a few minutes, contact platform support. They can see the exact error returned by the AI provider and investigate further.
"Unable to connect to AI service. Please try again."
What it means: The connection to api.x.ai timed out or failed at the network layer (not just an HTTP error response).
What to do: Same as above -- usually transient. If every request fails for several minutes, it is a server-side issue and platform support will need to investigate.
"Daily AI request limit reached. Please try again tomorrow."
What you'll see: All AI requests are blocked for the rest of the day. The chat input may still appear, but each send returns this error.
What it means: Your church has hit its daily AI request quota. The default platform limit is 500 requests per church per day; your plan may set a different number.
What to do:
- Check your usage. Open AI Settings -- the "Today's Requests" bar at the top of the Usage Overview card shows how close you were to the limit.
- Wait for the daily reset. The counter resets at midnight in your church's timezone.
- Upgrade your plan if you are routinely hitting the limit. Higher-tier plans include larger AI quotas.
- Spread out heavy work. If you are using "Generate" buttons in bulk, consider staggering them across days.
Tip: A single conversation with multiple back-and-forth turns counts as multiple requests. Reuse the same conversation for follow-up questions to be most efficient.
"AI Features Disabled by Administrator"
What you'll see: A banner at the top of the AI Settings page; chat bubbles hidden across the admin and member portal.
What it means: A TimelyChurch platform Super Admin has flipped the global AI kill switch OFF. This overrides every church's plan -- it is not specific to your account.
What to do: Wait for the platform admin to re-enable AI. The disabled message often explains the reason (planned maintenance, provider outage, billing pause). See Platform-Wide AI Controls for context. If you need an ETA, contact platform support.
"AI Not Included in Your Plan"
What you'll see: The AI Settings page shows upgrade options instead of usage stats; chat bubbles do not appear.
What it means: Your current plan does not include AI features. This is a per-church plan-level decision, not an outage.
What to do: Click the Upgrade Now (or Upgrade Plan) button in the upgrade panel on the AI Settings page. It takes you to your church settings, where you can pick a plan that includes AI. The panel also shows which plan unlocks AI and its daily request limit.
The AI Key Is Missing
What you'll see (church admins): If your plan includes AI but the platform's AI key is missing, the AI Settings page shows a yellow AI Not Configured banner explaining that the AI provider key still needs to be set. If a request does get through, it fails with the generic "AI service temporarily unavailable" message.
What platform staff see: In the Super Admin panel under System Settings > AI Module tab > AI Module Status, the status line reads ❌ API Key Not Set.
What it means: TimelyChurch's AI provider key has not been configured (or was removed) at the platform level.
What to do (for church admins): This is a platform-level configuration issue. Contact TimelyChurch support -- do not try to configure your own key. The AI key is shared across the platform and managed by Timely staff. See the operator section of the AI Settings article for how this is set up.
Still Stuck?
If none of the above explains what you're seeing:
- Take a screenshot of the error and the chat (or form) state.
- Note the approximate time and your church name.
- Contact TimelyChurch support with those details.
The more context you provide, the faster staff can correlate your report with the server-side logs.
Related Articles
- AI Settings -- usage stats and the operator-side configuration reference
- Platform-Wide AI Controls -- what the global kill switch does
- AI Tools and Actions -- the tools the admin chat calls