diff --git a/.changeset/olive-yaks-battle.md b/.changeset/olive-yaks-battle.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..5a3937ce
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/olive-yaks-battle.md
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+---
+"@livekit/agents": patch
+"@livekit/agents-plugin-openai": patch
+---
+
+make sure rejects return errors, not string
diff --git a/agents/src/multimodal/multimodal_agent.ts b/agents/src/multimodal/multimodal_agent.ts
index 3bdf2d31..0e12d93d 100644
--- a/agents/src/multimodal/multimodal_agent.ts
+++ b/agents/src/multimodal/multimodal_agent.ts
@@ -129,7 +129,7 @@ export class MultimodalAgent {
   ): Promise<RealtimeSession> {
     return new Promise(async (resolve, reject) => {
       if (this.#started) {
-        reject('MultimodalAgent already started');
+        reject(new Error('MultimodalAgent already started'));
       }
       this.#updateState();
 
diff --git a/agents/src/worker.ts b/agents/src/worker.ts
index f020fda2..95e47ad7 100644
--- a/agents/src/worker.ts
+++ b/agents/src/worker.ts
@@ -323,7 +323,7 @@ export class Worker {
           await new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
             this.#session!.on('open', resolve);
             this.#session!.on('error', (error) => reject(error));
-            this.#session!.on('close', (code) => reject(`WebSocket returned ${code}`));
+            this.#session!.on('close', (code) => reject(new Error(`WebSocket returned ${code}`)));
           });
 
           retries = 0;
diff --git a/plugins/openai/src/realtime/realtime_model.ts b/plugins/openai/src/realtime/realtime_model.ts
index cd13e5db..b0c8039e 100644
--- a/plugins/openai/src/realtime/realtime_model.ts
+++ b/plugins/openai/src/realtime/realtime_model.ts
@@ -458,7 +458,7 @@ export class RealtimeSession extends multimodal.RealtimeSession {
       });
 
       this.#ws.onerror = (error) => {
-        reject(error.message);
+        reject(error);
       };
 
       await once(this.#ws, 'open');
@@ -576,7 +576,7 @@ export class RealtimeSession extends multimodal.RealtimeSession {
           this.#closing = true;
         }
         if (!this.#closing) {
-          reject('OpenAI Realtime connection closed unexpectedly');
+          reject(new Error('OpenAI Realtime connection closed unexpectedly'));
         }
         this.#ws = null;
         resolve();