C Specification

While the core Vulkan API is not designed to capture incorrect usage, some circumstances still require return codes. Commands in Vulkan return their status via return codes that are in one of two categories:

  • Successful completion codes are returned when a command needs to communicate success or status information. All successful completion codes are non-negative values.

  • Runtime error codes are returned when a command needs to communicate a failure that could only be detected at runtime. All runtime error codes are negative values.

All return codes in Vulkan are reported via VkResult return values. The possible codes are:

// Provided by VK_VERSION_1_0
typedef enum VkResult {
    VK_SUCCESS = 0,
    VK_NOT_READY = 1,
    VK_TIMEOUT = 2,
    VK_EVENT_SET = 3,
    VK_EVENT_RESET = 4,
    VK_INCOMPLETE = 5,
    VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY = -1,
    VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DEVICE_MEMORY = -2,
    VK_ERROR_INITIALIZATION_FAILED = -3,
    VK_ERROR_DEVICE_LOST = -4,
    VK_ERROR_MEMORY_MAP_FAILED = -5,
    VK_ERROR_LAYER_NOT_PRESENT = -6,
    VK_ERROR_EXTENSION_NOT_PRESENT = -7,
    VK_ERROR_FEATURE_NOT_PRESENT = -8,
    VK_ERROR_INCOMPATIBLE_DRIVER = -9,
    VK_ERROR_TOO_MANY_OBJECTS = -10,
    VK_ERROR_FORMAT_NOT_SUPPORTED = -11,
    VK_ERROR_FRAGMENTED_POOL = -12,
    VK_ERROR_UNKNOWN = -13,
  // Provided by VK_VERSION_1_0
    VK_ERROR_VALIDATION_FAILED = -1000011001,
  // Provided by VK_VERSION_1_1
    VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_POOL_MEMORY = -1000069000,
  // Provided by VK_VERSION_1_1
    VK_ERROR_INVALID_EXTERNAL_HANDLE = -1000072003,
  // Provided by VK_VERSION_1_2
    VK_ERROR_INVALID_OPAQUE_CAPTURE_ADDRESS = -1000257000,
  // Provided by VK_VERSION_1_2
    VK_ERROR_FRAGMENTATION = -1000161000,
    VK_ERROR_NOT_PERMITTED = -1000174001,
  // Provided by VKSC_VERSION_1_0
    VK_ERROR_INVALID_PIPELINE_CACHE_DATA = -1000298000,
  // Provided by VKSC_VERSION_1_0
    VK_ERROR_NO_PIPELINE_MATCH = -1000298001,
  // Provided by VK_KHR_surface
    VK_ERROR_SURFACE_LOST_KHR = -1000000000,
  // Provided by VK_KHR_surface
    VK_ERROR_NATIVE_WINDOW_IN_USE_KHR = -1000000001,
  // Provided by VK_KHR_swapchain
    VK_SUBOPTIMAL_KHR = 1000001003,
  // Provided by VK_KHR_swapchain
    VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DATE_KHR = -1000001004,
  // Provided by VK_KHR_display_swapchain
    VK_ERROR_INCOMPATIBLE_DISPLAY_KHR = -1000003001,
  // Provided by VK_EXT_image_drm_format_modifier
    VK_ERROR_INVALID_DRM_FORMAT_MODIFIER_PLANE_LAYOUT_EXT = -1000158000,
  // Provided by VK_KHR_global_priority
    VK_ERROR_NOT_PERMITTED_KHR = VK_ERROR_NOT_PERMITTED,
} VkResult;

Description

Success Codes
Error Codes

If a command returns a runtime error, unless otherwise specified any output parameters will have undefined contents, except that if the output parameter is a structure with sType and pNext fields, those fields will be unmodified. Any structures chained from pNext will also have undefined contents, except that sType and pNext will be unmodified.

VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_*_MEMORY errors do not modify any currently existing Vulkan objects. Objects that have already been successfully created can still be used by the application. If VkPhysicalDeviceVulkanSC10Properties::deviceNoDynamicHostAllocations is VK_TRUE, VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY must not be returned from any physical or logical device command which explicitly disallows it.

Note

As a general rule, Free, Release, and Reset commands do not return VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY, while any other command with a return code may return it. Any exceptions from this rule are described for those commands.

VK_ERROR_UNKNOWN will be returned by an implementation when an unexpected error occurs that cannot be attributed to valid behavior of the application and implementation. Under these conditions, it may be returned from any command returning a VkResult.

Note

VK_ERROR_UNKNOWN is not expected to ever be returned if the application behavior is valid, and if the implementation is bug-free. If VK_ERROR_UNKNOWN is returned, the application should be checked against the latest validation layers to verify correct behavior as much as possible. If no issues are identified it could be an implementation issue, and the implementor should be contacted for support.

Any command returning a VkResult may return VK_ERROR_VALIDATION_FAILED if a violation of valid usage is detected.

Performance-critical commands generally do not have return codes. If a runtime error occurs in such commands, the implementation will defer reporting the error until a specified point. For commands that record into command buffers (vkCmd*) runtime errors are reported by vkEndCommandBuffer.

Note

Implementations can also use https://registry.khronos.org/vulkansc/specs/1.0-extensions/html/vkspec.html#fault-handling to report runtime errors where suitable return values are not available or to provide more prompt notification of an error.

See Also

VK_VERSION_1_0, VkPresentInfoKHR

Document Notes

For more information, see the Vulkan Specification.

This page is extracted from the Vulkan Specification. Fixes and changes should be made to the Specification, not directly.

Copyright

Copyright 2014-2026 The Khronos Group Inc.

SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0