Errors / HTTP errors

413 Request Entity Too Large

The file or form sent to the site is bigger than the server accepts.

The upload fails, sometimes with nothing but a generic error.

Seeing it on someone else’s site?

• Upload a smaller file, or compress it (images and PDFs usually shrink a lot).

Why it happens, if it is your site

• nginx's client_max_body_size (1 MB by default) is smaller than the upload.
• PHP's upload_max_filesize and post_max_size, or the app framework's own body limit.
• A platform ceiling: serverless functions accept a few megabytes per request.

How to fix it

1. Raise the limit at every layer the request passes through: the proxy, the language runtime, the app.
2. For large files, upload straight to storage with a signed URL instead of through the app.
3. Tell the visitor the limit before they pick a file.

Whose problem it is

Usually the server that answers the request.