ERROR when starting live deploy!!

I’m on it. That error means your job couldn’t authenticate with QuantConnect before validating your subscription. It usually comes from one of four things: wrong API user id/token, using the wrong Organization, no active seat/license on that Organization, or a network timeout blocking the auth call.

First, a couple quick questions to pinpoint it:

• Are you running in QuantConnect Cloud, or locally with Lean/CLI (or Docker/CI)?
• What exact command did you run and approximately when (UTC)?
• If you have a jobId or a few log lines before/after the error, please share them.

Do the relevant branch below.

A) If you’re on QuantConnect Cloud 1) Switch to the correct Organization and retry:

• In the web app, use the org switcher at the top. Make sure it’s the Organization that owns the active subscription.
• Re-run the backtest/live deployment from that Organization.

2) Verify the subscription and seat:

• Billing/Subscriptions: confirm it’s active.
• Organization > Members: confirm your user has an assigned seat/license for what you’re doing (e.g., Research, Backtesting, Live Trading, data feeds). If not, assign a seat and retry.

3) Still failing?

• Re-queue the job. If the error persists, send Support the UTC timestamp, jobId, and OrganizationId.

B) If you’re running locally with Lean/CLI (common for this error) 1) Refresh your API credentials and re-login:

• In your QuantConnect account, go to Account > API Access and regenerate a fresh token. Note the numeric user id and the new token.
• Run: lean login Enter the user id and token when prompted.
• Verify: lean whoami It should show your username and Organization.

2) Ensure you’re using the correct Organization:

• List orgs: lean organizations list
• Set the right one: lean config set organization-id
• Check current: lean config list (look for organization-id)

3) Remove stale overrides:

• Make sure no environment variables are overriding credentials (e.g., QC_USER_ID, QC_API_TOKEN, QC_ORGANIZATION_ID) in your shell, CI, or Docker env. Clear or update them to match your new credentials/org.

4) Network and clock checks (time-outs often cause the first message in your error):

• Allow outbound HTTPS to api.quantconnect.com:443. Disable or bypass VPNs/proxies/firewalls that intercept TLS.
• Corporate proxy/MITM? Configure your proxy properly or add an exclusion for api.quantconnect.com.
• Ensure your system clock is accurate (sync with NTP). A skew of a few minutes can break TLS/auth.
• Retry after a brief backoff.

5) Re-run with verbose logs and share if it still fails:

• Example: lean --verbose backtest "My Project"
• Save the output around the authentication lines; include UTC time if you contact Support.

Common gotchas that can trigger this error

• Wrong workspace directory: if you use “organization workspaces,” run Lean commands from the workspace directory of the Organization with the active subscription.
• CI/Docker secrets mismatch: Make sure the QC_USER_ID/QC_API_TOKEN secrets in your pipeline match the freshly regenerated ones, and that the organization-id matches the org with the active seat.
• No active subscription while trying to pull QC data locally: using the QuantConnect data provider locally requires an active data subscription. If you intend to run without QC data, switch to local-disk data and ensure your algorithm only uses your own custom data.
• Custom-data-only live feed: if you use a custom-data-only provider, make sure your algorithm doesn’t subscribe to non-custom data (including the default benchmark). Set your benchmark to a constant value to avoid an implicit SPY subscription.

If you share:

• Cloud or Local
• OS and Lean CLI version (lean -V)
• The command you ran
• organization-id (not the name), with user id masked
• UTC timestamp and the few lines around the error

…I’ll map your setup to the next exact step (or the precise commands to fix your config).

Sources: QuantConnect Paper Trading - QuantConnect.com, Authentication - QuantConnect.com, Getting Started - QuantConnect.com