diff --git a/backend/open_webui/retrieval/web/firecrawl.py b/backend/open_webui/retrieval/web/firecrawl.py
index baffb6207d..04e03aff55 100644
--- a/backend/open_webui/retrieval/web/firecrawl.py
+++ b/backend/open_webui/retrieval/web/firecrawl.py
@@ -28,10 +28,10 @@ def build_firecrawl_url(base_url: str | None, path: str) -> str:
 
 
 def build_firecrawl_headers(api_key: str | None) -> dict[str, str]:
-    return {
-        'Content-Type': 'application/json',
-        'Authorization': f'Bearer {api_key or ""}',
-    }
+    headers = {'Content-Type': 'application/json'}
+    if api_key:
+        headers['Authorization'] = f'Bearer {api_key}'
+    return headers
 
 
 def get_firecrawl_timeout_seconds(timeout: Any) -> float | None: