4xx Client error
413 Content Too Large
The request body is larger than the server allows.
Formerly “Payload Too Large”. Usually a file upload or JSON body exceeding a configured limit.
Common causes and fixes
- nginx defaults to 1 MB: raise
client_max_body_size. - Check framework limits too, e.g. Express
express.json({ limit })or Springmax-file-size. - For big files, upload directly to object storage with a signed URL or use chunked uploads.
- For LLM APIs, the prompt or images may be too large — compress images or trim the context.
Example response
HTTP/1.1 413 Content Too Large
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 2026 08:00:00 GMT Check a URL’s status with curl -I https://example.com, which prints the status line and headers.