diff --git a/litellm/proxy/ocr_endpoints/endpoints.py b/litellm/proxy/ocr_endpoints/endpoints.py
index 5c12bc90a4f..00890662be5 100644
--- a/litellm/proxy/ocr_endpoints/endpoints.py
+++ b/litellm/proxy/ocr_endpoints/endpoints.py
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ from collections.abc import Mapping
 from typing import Any, Final, cast
 
 import orjson
-from fastapi import APIRouter, Depends, Request, Response, UploadFile
+from fastapi import APIRouter, Depends, HTTPException, Request, Response, UploadFile
 from fastapi.responses import ORJSONResponse
 
 from litellm._logging import verbose_proxy_logger
@@ -57,7 +57,11 @@ def _with_request_format(data: Mapping[str, Any], request: Request) -> Mapping[s
     header_value: Final = request.headers.get(OCR_REQUEST_FORMAT_HEADER)
     if header_value is None or OCR_REQUEST_FORMAT_PARAM in data:
         return data
-    return {**data, OCR_REQUEST_FORMAT_PARAM: parse_ocr_request_format(header_value.strip().lower())}
+    try:
+        request_format: Final = parse_ocr_request_format(header_value.strip().lower())
+    except ValueError as e:
+        raise HTTPException(status_code=400, detail={"error": f"{e}"})
+    return {**data, OCR_REQUEST_FORMAT_PARAM: request_format}
 
 
 def _native_response(response: object, fastapi_response: Response) -> Response | None:
diff --git a/tests/test_litellm/proxy/ocr_endpoints/test_endpoints.py b/tests/test_litellm/proxy/ocr_endpoints/test_endpoints.py
index b34c20f30b7..491011170e5 100644
--- a/tests/test_litellm/proxy/ocr_endpoints/test_endpoints.py
+++ b/tests/test_litellm/proxy/ocr_endpoints/test_endpoints.py
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ from unittest.mock import AsyncMock, MagicMock
 
 import orjson
 import pytest
+from fastapi import HTTPException
 
 from litellm.llms.base_llm.ocr.transformation import OCRPage, OCRResponse
 from litellm.proxy.ocr_endpoints.endpoints import _native_response, _parse_ocr_request
@@ -79,9 +80,12 @@ async def test_should_reject_unknown_req_format_header():
         {"x-req-format": "azure"},
     )
 
-    with pytest.raises(ValueError, match="Invalid `req_format`"):
+    with pytest.raises(HTTPException) as exc_info:
         await _parse_ocr_request(request)
 
+    assert exc_info.value.status_code == 400
+    assert "Invalid `req_format`" in f"{exc_info.value.detail}"
+
 
 def test_should_return_native_payload_with_litellm_response_headers():
     fastapi_response = MagicMock()