diff --git a/pkg/providers/error_classifier.go b/pkg/providers/error_classifier.go
index 5563e669e..bf300b955 100644
--- a/pkg/providers/error_classifier.go
+++ b/pkg/providers/error_classifier.go
@@ -78,20 +78,6 @@ var (
 		substr("invalid request format"),
 	}
 
-	// Model invalid/not found patterns: these are 400 errors that should be
-	// retriable (fallback to next model), NOT treated as format errors.
-	modelInvalidPatterns = []errorPattern{
-		substr("not a valid model"),
-		substr("model not found"),
-		substr("model_not_found"),
-		substr("model not available"),
-		substr("does not exist"),
-		substr("no such model"),
-		substr("invalid model"),
-		rxp(`model.*not.*supported`),
-		rxp(`model.*is.*unavailable`),
-		rxp(`model.*is.*deprecated`),
-	}
 
 	imageDimensionPatterns = []errorPattern{
 		rxp(`image dimensions exceed max`),
@@ -143,17 +129,6 @@ func ClassifyError(err error, provider, model string) *FailoverError {
 		}
 	}
 
-	// Model invalid/not found: retriable, should fallback to another model.
-	// This MUST run before HTTP status classification, because 400 + "not a valid model"
-	// would otherwise be classified as non-retriable FailoverFormat.
-	if matchesAny(msg, modelInvalidPatterns) {
-		return &FailoverError{
-			Reason:   FailoverModelInvalid,
-			Provider: provider,
-			Model:    model,
-			Wrapped:  err,
-		}
-	}
 
 	// Try HTTP status code extraction.
 	if status := extractHTTPStatus(msg); status > 0 {
diff --git a/pkg/providers/error_classifier_test.go b/pkg/providers/error_classifier_test.go
index b9a6b035a..2a45730c2 100644
--- a/pkg/providers/error_classifier_test.go
+++ b/pkg/providers/error_classifier_test.go
@@ -207,26 +207,20 @@ func TestClassifyError_FormatPatterns(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
-func TestClassifyError_ModelInvalidPatterns(t *testing.T) {
-	patterns := []string{
-		"nemotron-3-nano-30b-a3b:free is not a valid model ID",
-		"model not found",
-		"model_not_found: the requested model does not exist",
-		"model not available in this region",
-		"the model does not exist or you do not have access",
-		"no such model: gpt-5-turbo",
-		"invalid model specified",
-		"model llama-3-8b is not supported",
-		"model gpt-4o-mini is unavailable",
-		"model codellama is deprecated",
+func TestClassifyError_Status400_ModelInvalid(t *testing.T) {
+	// All 400 errors should be classified as FailoverModelInvalid (retriable + warning).
+	// The actual error message is shown in the warning to the user.
+	tests := []string{
+		"API request failed:\n  Status: 400\n  Body: nemotron-3-nano-30b-a3b:free is not a valid model ID",
+		"API request failed:\n  Status: 400\n  Body: unknown error from provider",
+		"API request failed:\n  Status: 400\n  Body: model not found",
 	}
 
-	for _, msg := range patterns {
+	for _, msg := range tests {
 		err := errors.New(msg)
 		result := ClassifyError(err, "nvidia", "test-model")
 		if result == nil {
-			t.Errorf("pattern %q: expected non-nil", msg)
-			continue
+			t.Fatalf("pattern %q: expected non-nil", msg)
 		}
 		if result.Reason != FailoverModelInvalid {
 			t.Errorf("pattern %q: reason = %q, want model_invalid", msg, result.Reason)
@@ -240,26 +234,6 @@ func TestClassifyError_ModelInvalidPatterns(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
-func TestClassifyError_ModelInvalid_OverridesStatus400(t *testing.T) {
-	// This is the exact production error: status 400 + "not a valid model".
-	// Before the fix, status 400 was classified as FailoverFormat (non-retriable),
-	// which prevented fallback to other models.
-	err := fmt.Errorf("API request failed:\n  Status: 400\n  Body:   {\"error\":{\"message\":\"nemotron-3-nano-30b-a3b:free is not a valid model ID\",\"code\":400}}")
-	result := ClassifyError(err, "nvidia", "nemotron-3-nano-30b-a3b:free")
-	if result == nil {
-		t.Fatal("expected non-nil for model-invalid 400 error")
-	}
-	if result.Reason != FailoverModelInvalid {
-		t.Errorf("reason = %q, want model_invalid (should override status 400)", result.Reason)
-	}
-	if !result.IsRetriable() {
-		t.Error("model-invalid error should be retriable to allow fallback to next model")
-	}
-	if !result.IsModelInvalid() {
-		t.Error("should be classified as model invalid")
-	}
-}
-
 func TestClassifyError_ImageDimensionError(t *testing.T) {
 	err := errors.New("image dimensions exceed max allowed 2048x2048")
 	result := ClassifyError(err, "openai", "gpt-4o")