diff --git a/pages/api/generate.ts b/pages/api/generate.ts
index c8439ca8..89619590 100644
--- a/pages/api/generate.ts
+++ b/pages/api/generate.ts
@@ -30,7 +30,19 @@ const handler = async (req: Request): Promise<Response> => {
   };
 
   const stream = await OpenAIStream(payload);
-  return new Response(stream);
+  // return stream response (SSE)
+  return new Response(
+    stream, {
+      headers: new Headers({
+        // since we don't use browser's EventSource interface, specifying content-type is optional.
+        // the eventsource-parser library can handle the stream response as SSE, as long as the data format complies with SSE:
+        // https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Server-sent_events/Using_server-sent_events#sending_events_from_the_server
+        
+        // 'Content-Type': 'text/event-stream',
+        'Cache-Control': 'no-cache',
+      })
+    }
+  );
 };
 
 export default handler;
diff --git a/pages/index.tsx b/pages/index.tsx
index 8b7679de..ce54c69e 100644
--- a/pages/index.tsx
+++ b/pages/index.tsx
@@ -8,6 +8,11 @@ import Footer from "../components/Footer";
 import Github from "../components/GitHub";
 import Header from "../components/Header";
 import LoadingDots from "../components/LoadingDots";
+import {
+  createParser,
+  ParsedEvent,
+  ReconnectInterval,
+} from "eventsource-parser";
 
 const Home: NextPage = () => {
   const [loading, setLoading] = useState(false);
@@ -56,15 +61,28 @@ const Home: NextPage = () => {
       return;
     }
 
+    const onParse = (event: ParsedEvent | ReconnectInterval) => {
+      if (event.type === "event") {
+        const data = event.data;
+        try {
+          const text = JSON.parse(data).text ?? ""
+          setGeneratedBios((prev) => prev + text);
+        } catch (e) {
+          console.error(e);
+        }
+      }
+    }
+
+    // https://web.dev/streams/#the-getreader-and-read-methods
     const reader = data.getReader();
     const decoder = new TextDecoder();
+    const parser = createParser(onParse);
     let done = false;
-
     while (!done) {
       const { value, done: doneReading } = await reader.read();
       done = doneReading;
       const chunkValue = decoder.decode(value);
-      setGeneratedBios((prev) => prev + chunkValue);
+      parser.feed(chunkValue);
     }
     scrollToBios();
     setLoading(false);
diff --git a/utils/OpenAIStream.ts b/utils/OpenAIStream.ts
index b0b0d73a..6186c144 100644
--- a/utils/OpenAIStream.ts
+++ b/utils/OpenAIStream.ts
@@ -27,8 +27,6 @@ export async function OpenAIStream(payload: OpenAIStreamPayload) {
   const encoder = new TextEncoder();
   const decoder = new TextDecoder();
 
-  let counter = 0;
-
   const res = await fetch("https://api.openai.com/v1/chat/completions", {
     headers: {
       "Content-Type": "application/json",
@@ -38,34 +36,28 @@ export async function OpenAIStream(payload: OpenAIStreamPayload) {
     body: JSON.stringify(payload),
   });
 
-  const stream = new ReadableStream({
+  const readableStream = new ReadableStream({
     async start(controller) {
       // callback
-      function onParse(event: ParsedEvent | ReconnectInterval) {
+      const onParse = (event: ParsedEvent | ReconnectInterval) => {
         if (event.type === "event") {
           const data = event.data;
-          // https://beta.openai.com/docs/api-reference/completions/create#completions/create-stream
-          if (data === "[DONE]") {
-            controller.close();
-            return;
-          }
-          try {
-            const json = JSON.parse(data);
-            const text = json.choices[0].delta?.content || "";
-            if (counter < 2 && (text.match(/\n/) || []).length) {
-              // this is a prefix character (i.e., "\n\n"), do nothing
-              return;
-            }
-            const queue = encoder.encode(text);
-            controller.enqueue(queue);
-            counter++;
-          } catch (e) {
-            // maybe parse error
-            controller.error(e);
-          }
+          controller.enqueue(encoder.encode(data));
         }
       }
 
+      // optimistic error handling
+      if (res.status !== 200) {
+        const data = {
+          status: res.status,
+          statusText: res.statusText,
+          body: await res.text(),
+        }
+        console.log(`Error: recieved non-200 status code, ${JSON.stringify(data)}`);
+        controller.close();
+        return
+      }
+        
       // stream response (SSE) from OpenAI may be fragmented into multiple chunks
       // this ensures we properly read chunks and invoke an event for each SSE event stream
       const parser = createParser(onParse);
@@ -76,5 +68,35 @@ export async function OpenAIStream(payload: OpenAIStreamPayload) {
     },
   });
 
-  return stream;
+  let counter = 0;
+  const transformStream = new TransformStream({
+    async transform(chunk, controller) {
+      const data = decoder.decode(chunk);
+      // https://beta.openai.com/docs/api-reference/completions/create#completions/create-stream
+      if (data === "[DONE]") {
+        controller.terminate();
+        return;
+      }
+      try {
+        const json = JSON.parse(data);
+        const text = json.choices[0].delta?.content || "";
+        if (counter < 2 && (text.match(/\n/) || []).length) {
+          // this is a prefix character (i.e., "\n\n"), do nothing
+          return;
+        }
+        // stream transformed JSON resposne as SSE
+        const payload = {text: text};
+        // https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Server-sent_events/Using_server-sent_events#event_stream_format
+        controller.enqueue(
+          encoder.encode(`data: ${JSON.stringify(payload)}\n\n`)
+        );
+        counter++;
+      } catch (e) {
+        // maybe parse error
+        controller.error(e);
+      }
+    },
+  });
+
+  return readableStream.pipeThrough(transformStream);
 }