diff --git a/backend/app/services/model_routing.py b/backend/app/services/model_routing.py
index e59bc71..04899e1 100644
--- a/backend/app/services/model_routing.py
+++ b/backend/app/services/model_routing.py
@@ -32,10 +32,8 @@
     "tool result",
 ]
 
-# Routing failures (OpenRouter malformed 200) produce "api error" in the CLI prefix.
-# "malformed response" / "empty response" are specific message fragments for the same failure mode.
+# "malformed response" / "empty response" are specific message fragments for the model routing failure mode.
 _MODEL_ROUTING_FAILURE_PATTERNS = [
-    "api error",
     "malformed response",
     "empty response",
 ]
diff --git a/backend/test/test_classify_error.py b/backend/test/test_classify_error.py
index 234216f..0b5788a 100644
--- a/backend/test/test_classify_error.py
+++ b/backend/test/test_classify_error.py
@@ -31,8 +31,9 @@ def test_api_error_prefix(self):
         msg = "API Error: API returned an empty or malformed response (HTTP 200) — check for a proxy or gateway intercepting the request"
         assert classify_error(msg) == AgentErrorType.MODEL_ROUTING_FAILURE
 
-    def test_api_error_case_insensitive(self):
-        assert classify_error("api error: something went wrong") == AgentErrorType.MODEL_ROUTING_FAILURE
+    def test_api_error_alone_no_longer_classifies(self):
+        # "api error" was removed from the pattern list — too broad, matched genuine HTTP errors.
+        assert classify_error("api error: something went wrong") is None
 
     def test_malformed_response_pattern(self):
         assert classify_error("malformed response received from upstream") == AgentErrorType.MODEL_ROUTING_FAILURE
@@ -80,7 +81,7 @@ def test_status_200_does_not_exclude_routing_failure(self):
         assert classify_error(msg, api_error_status=200) == AgentErrorType.MODEL_ROUTING_FAILURE
 
     def test_status_below_400_does_not_exclude(self):
-        msg = "API Error: redirect issue"
+        msg = "API Error: malformed response, redirect issue"
         assert classify_error(msg, api_error_status=301) == AgentErrorType.MODEL_ROUTING_FAILURE