diff --git a/apps/web/app/api/onboarding/extract-content/route.ts b/apps/web/app/api/onboarding/extract-content/route.ts
index 6cdb40d5c..9322f3242 100644
--- a/apps/web/app/api/onboarding/extract-content/route.ts
+++ b/apps/web/app/api/onboarding/extract-content/route.ts
@@ -9,8 +9,22 @@ interface ExaApiResponse {
 	results: ExaContentResult[]
 }
 
+const exaApiKey = process.env.EXA_API_KEY
+if (!exaApiKey) {
+	console.error(
+		"EXA_API_KEY is not configured; /api/onboarding/extract-content will return 503",
+	)
+}
+
 export async function POST(request: Request) {
 	try {
+		if (!exaApiKey) {
+			return Response.json(
+				{ error: "Content extraction is unavailable" },
+				{ status: 503 },
+			)
+		}
+
 		const { urls } = await request.json()
 
 		if (!Array.isArray(urls) || urls.length === 0) {
@@ -30,7 +44,7 @@ export async function POST(request: Request) {
 		const response = await fetch("https://api.exa.ai/contents", {
 			method: "POST",
 			headers: {
-				"x-api-key": process.env.EXA_API_KEY ?? "",
+				"x-api-key": exaApiKey,
 				"Content-Type": "application/json",
 			},
 			body: JSON.stringify({