diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 1eba08595a4..3635ae6e729 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -77,6 +77,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 - Telegram/direct delivery: bridge direct delivery sends to internal `message:sent` hooks so internal hook listeners observe successful Telegram deliveries. (#40185) Thanks @vincentkoc.
 - Plugins/global hook runner: harden singleton state handling so shared global hook runner reuse does not leak or corrupt runner state across executions. (#40184) Thanks @vincentkoc.
 - Agents/fallback: recognize Poe `402 You've used up your points!` billing errors so configured model fallbacks trigger instead of surfacing the raw provider error. (#42278) Thanks @CryUshio.
+- Agents/fallback: recognize Venice `402 Insufficient USD or Diem balance` billing errors so configured model fallbacks trigger instead of surfacing the raw provider error. (#43205) Thanks @Squabble9.
 - Telegram/outbound HTML sends: chunk long HTML-mode messages, preserve plain-text fallback and silent-delivery params across retries, and cut over to plain text when HTML chunk planning cannot safely preserve the full message. (#42240) thanks @obviyus.
 - Agents/embedded overload logs: include the failing model and provider in error-path console output, with lifecycle regression coverage for the rendered and sanitized `consoleMessage`. (#41236) thanks @jiarung.
 - Agents/failover: treat Gemini `MALFORMED_RESPONSE` stop reasons as retryable timeouts so preview-model enum drift falls back cleanly instead of crashing the run, without also reclassifying malformed function-call errors. (#42292) Thanks @jnMetaCode.
diff --git a/src/agents/pi-embedded-helpers.isbillingerrormessage.test.ts b/src/agents/pi-embedded-helpers.isbillingerrormessage.test.ts
index b9a0f311a04..27c89afe425 100644
--- a/src/agents/pi-embedded-helpers.isbillingerrormessage.test.ts
+++ b/src/agents/pi-embedded-helpers.isbillingerrormessage.test.ts
@@ -107,7 +107,7 @@ describe("isBillingErrorMessage", () => {
       "HTTP 402 Payment Required",
       "plans & billing",
       // Venice returns "Insufficient USD or Diem balance" which has extra words
-      // between "insufficient" and "balance" (#XXXXX)
+      // between "insufficient" and "balance"
       "Insufficient USD or Diem balance to complete request. Visit https://venice.ai/settings/api to add credits.",
     ];
     for (const sample of samples) {
@@ -152,6 +152,11 @@ describe("isBillingErrorMessage", () => {
     expect(longResponse.length).toBeGreaterThan(512);
     expect(isBillingErrorMessage(longResponse)).toBe(false);
   });
+  it("does not false-positive on short non-billing text that mentions insufficient and balance", () => {
+    const sample = "The evidence is insufficient to reconcile the final balance after compaction.";
+    expect(isBillingErrorMessage(sample)).toBe(false);
+    expect(classifyFailoverReason(sample)).toBeNull();
+  });
   it("still matches explicit 402 markers in long payloads", () => {
     const longStructuredError =
       '{"error":{"code":402,"message":"payment required","details":"' + "x".repeat(700) + '"}}';
diff --git a/src/agents/pi-embedded-helpers/failover-matches.ts b/src/agents/pi-embedded-helpers/failover-matches.ts
index de80685f1d2..a9f16fa6202 100644
--- a/src/agents/pi-embedded-helpers/failover-matches.ts
+++ b/src/agents/pi-embedded-helpers/failover-matches.ts
@@ -51,7 +51,8 @@ const ERROR_PATTERNS = {
     /insufficient[_ ]quota/i,
     "credit balance",
     "plans & billing",
-    /insufficient\b.*\bbalance/i,
+    "insufficient balance",
+    "insufficient usd or diem balance",
   ],
   authPermanent: [
     /api[_ ]?key[_ ]?(?:revoked|invalid|deactivated|deleted)/i,