diff --git a/litellm/llms/vertex_ai/vertex_ai_partner_models/count_tokens/handler.py b/litellm/llms/vertex_ai/vertex_ai_partner_models/count_tokens/handler.py
index 9e22f54f112..c6914ac3d6b 100644
--- a/litellm/llms/vertex_ai/vertex_ai_partner_models/count_tokens/handler.py
+++ b/litellm/llms/vertex_ai/vertex_ai_partner_models/count_tokens/handler.py
@@ -144,6 +144,13 @@ class VertexAIPartnerModelsTokenCounter(VertexBase):
             timeout=30.0,
         )
 
+        # Check for errors
+        if response.status_code != 200:
+            error_text = response.text
+            raise ValueError(
+                f"Token counting request failed with status {response.status_code}: {error_text}"
+            )
+
         # Parse response
         result = response.json()