diff --git a/src/backend/tests/routers/test_chat.py b/src/backend/tests/routers/test_chat.py
index 573d83dc86..238dd13e30 100644
--- a/src/backend/tests/routers/test_chat.py
+++ b/src/backend/tests/routers/test_chat.py
@@ -15,7 +15,10 @@
 from backend.schemas.tool import Category
 from backend.tests.factories import get_factory
 
-is_cohere_env_set = os.environ.get("COHERE_API_KEY") is not None
+is_cohere_env_set = (
+    os.environ.get("COHERE_API_KEY") is not None
+    and os.environ.get("COHERE_API_KEY") != ""
+)
 
 
 @pytest.fixture()
diff --git a/src/backend/tests/tools/retrieval/test_collate.py b/src/backend/tests/tools/retrieval/test_collate.py
index 776cfe174e..f0117ac08a 100644
--- a/src/backend/tests/tools/retrieval/test_collate.py
+++ b/src/backend/tests/tools/retrieval/test_collate.py
@@ -5,7 +5,10 @@
 from backend.chat.custom.model_deployments.cohere_platform import CohereDeployment
 from backend.tools.retrieval import collate
 
-is_cohere_env_set = os.environ.get("COHERE_API_KEY") is not None
+is_cohere_env_set = (
+    os.environ.get("COHERE_API_KEY") is not None
+    and os.environ.get("COHERE_API_KEY") != ""
+)
 
 
 @pytest.mark.skipif(not is_cohere_env_set, reason="Cohere API key not set")
diff --git a/src/backend/tests/tools/retrieval/test_lang_chain.py b/src/backend/tests/tools/retrieval/test_lang_chain.py
index f5fbe90476..1f3dc93952 100644
--- a/src/backend/tests/tools/retrieval/test_lang_chain.py
+++ b/src/backend/tests/tools/retrieval/test_lang_chain.py
@@ -9,7 +9,10 @@
     LangChainWikiRetriever,
 )
 
-is_cohere_env_set = os.environ.get("COHERE_API_KEY") is not None
+is_cohere_env_set = (
+    os.environ.get("COHERE_API_KEY") is not None
+    and os.environ.get("COHERE_API_KEY") != ""
+)
 
 
 def test_wiki_retriever() -> None: