HTTP Status Code 408 = “Request Timeout”

The server timed out waiting for the client to send a complete request.

In simple terms:

The client took too long to send data, so the server closed the connection.

Common causes

• Slow internet connection
• Large upload taking too long
• Idle browser/client
• Network interruption
• Server timeout settings too strict
• API request delays
• Reverse proxy timeout Example

http id=”m7q2we”
HTTP/1.1 408 Request Timeout

Common scenarios

• Uploading large files
• Slow API requests
• Unstable mobile networks
• Browser inactivity
• Long-running form submissions Fixes for users
• Refresh the page
• Check internet connection
• Retry request
• Reduce upload size
• Disable VPN/proxy temporarily Fixes for developers

1. Increase server timeout

Nginx

nginx id=”v4k8ra”
client_body_timeout 300;
proxy_read_timeout 300;

2. Apache

apache id=”n3p1xd”
Timeout 300

3. Node.js Express

js id=”u8w5kc”
server.timeout = 300000;

4. PHP

ini id=”g7q2mv”
max_execution_time = 300
max_input_time = 300

5. Axios timeout

js id=”r4k9zn”
axios({
timeout: 30000
});

Difference between 408 and 504

Code	Meaning
408	Client took too long
504	Upstream server took too long

Related HTTP status codes

| Code | Meaning |
| — | |
| 400 | Bad Request |
| 408 | Request Timeout |
| 429 | Too Many Requests |
| 500 | Internal Server Error |
| 502 | Bad Gateway |
| 504 | Gateway Timeout |