diff --git a/enterprise/cmd/cody-gateway/internal/httpapi/embeddings/BUILD.bazel b/enterprise/cmd/cody-gateway/internal/httpapi/embeddings/BUILD.bazel
index 67e5ca86908f..8463cd28bb32 100644
--- a/enterprise/cmd/cody-gateway/internal/httpapi/embeddings/BUILD.bazel
+++ b/enterprise/cmd/cody-gateway/internal/httpapi/embeddings/BUILD.bazel
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+load("//dev:go_defs.bzl", "go_test")
 load("@io_bazel_rules_go//go:def.bzl", "go_library")
 
 go_library(
@@ -24,3 +25,13 @@ go_library(
         "@org_golang_x_exp//slices",
     ],
 )
+
+go_test(
+    name = "embeddings_test",
+    srcs = ["openai_test.go"],
+    embed = [":embeddings"],
+    deps = [
+        "//internal/codygateway",
+        "@com_github_stretchr_testify//require",
+    ],
+)
diff --git a/enterprise/cmd/cody-gateway/internal/httpapi/embeddings/openai.go b/enterprise/cmd/cody-gateway/internal/httpapi/embeddings/openai.go
index 02321cef344a..57a94b93d483 100644
--- a/enterprise/cmd/cody-gateway/internal/httpapi/embeddings/openai.go
+++ b/enterprise/cmd/cody-gateway/internal/httpapi/embeddings/openai.go
@@ -27,6 +27,14 @@ type openaiClient struct {
 const apiURL = "https://api.openai.com/v1/embeddings"
 
 func (c *openaiClient) GenerateEmbeddings(ctx context.Context, input codygateway.EmbeddingsRequest) (*codygateway.EmbeddingsResponse, int, error) {
+	for _, s := range input.Input {
+		if s == "" {
+			// The OpenAI API will return an error if any of the strings in texts is an empty string,
+			// so fail fast to avoid making tons of retryable requests.
+			return nil, 0, response.NewHTTPStatusCodeError(http.StatusBadRequest, errors.New("cannot generate embeddings for an empty string"))
+		}
+	}
+
 	openAIModel, ok := openAIModelMappings[input.Model]
 	if !ok {
 		return nil, 0, response.NewHTTPStatusCodeError(http.StatusBadRequest, errors.Newf("no OpenAI model found for %q", input.Model))
diff --git a/enterprise/cmd/cody-gateway/internal/httpapi/embeddings/openai_test.go b/enterprise/cmd/cody-gateway/internal/httpapi/embeddings/openai_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..beaefddf849c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/enterprise/cmd/cody-gateway/internal/httpapi/embeddings/openai_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+package embeddings
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/sourcegraph/sourcegraph/internal/codygateway"
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
+)
+
+func TestOpenAI(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Run("errors on empty embedding string", func(t *testing.T) {
+		client := NewOpenAIClient("")
+		_, _, err := client.GenerateEmbeddings(context.Background(), codygateway.EmbeddingsRequest{
+			Input: []string{"a", ""}, // empty string is invalid
+		})
+		require.ErrorContains(t, err, "empty string")
+	})
+}
diff --git a/enterprise/internal/embeddings/embed/client/openai/BUILD.bazel b/enterprise/internal/embeddings/embed/client/openai/BUILD.bazel
index cd641477607f..2c8b196285e8 100644
--- a/enterprise/internal/embeddings/embed/client/openai/BUILD.bazel
+++ b/enterprise/internal/embeddings/embed/client/openai/BUILD.bazel
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+load("//dev:go_defs.bzl", "go_test")
 load("@io_bazel_rules_go//go:def.bzl", "go_library")
 
 go_library(
@@ -11,3 +12,13 @@ go_library(
         "//lib/errors",
     ],
 )
+
+go_test(
+    name = "openai_test",
+    srcs = ["client_test.go"],
+    embed = [":openai"],
+    deps = [
+        "//internal/conf/conftypes",
+        "@com_github_stretchr_testify//require",
+    ],
+)
diff --git a/enterprise/internal/embeddings/embed/client/openai/client.go b/enterprise/internal/embeddings/embed/client/openai/client.go
index 7512bb110b48..8dc3965a8438 100644
--- a/enterprise/internal/embeddings/embed/client/openai/client.go
+++ b/enterprise/internal/embeddings/embed/client/openai/client.go
@@ -48,6 +48,14 @@ func (c *openaiEmbeddingsClient) GetModelIdentifier() string {
 // In case of failure, it retries the embedding procedure up to maxRetries. This due to the OpenAI API which
 // often hangs up when downloading large embedding responses.
 func (c *openaiEmbeddingsClient) GetEmbeddingsWithRetries(ctx context.Context, texts []string, maxRetries int) ([]float32, error) {
+	for _, text := range texts {
+		if text == "" {
+			// The OpenAI API will return an error if any of the strings in texts is an empty string,
+			// so fail fast to avoid making tons of retryable requests.
+			return nil, errors.New("cannot generate embeddings for an empty string")
+		}
+	}
+
 	embeddings, err := c.getEmbeddings(ctx, texts)
 	if err == nil {
 		return embeddings, nil
diff --git a/enterprise/internal/embeddings/embed/client/openai/client_test.go b/enterprise/internal/embeddings/embed/client/openai/client_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..95c7d8b0ef0e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/enterprise/internal/embeddings/embed/client/openai/client_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+package openai
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/sourcegraph/sourcegraph/internal/conf/conftypes"
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
+)
+
+func TestOpenAI(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Run("errors on empty embedding string", func(t *testing.T) {
+		client := NewClient(&conftypes.EmbeddingsConfig{})
+		invalidTexts := []string{"a", ""} // empty string is invalid
+		_, err := client.GetEmbeddingsWithRetries(context.Background(), invalidTexts, 10)
+		require.ErrorContains(t, err, "empty string")
+	})
+}