---
title: "413 Payload Too Large"
canonical: "https://lemwatch.com/http-status-codes/413"
category: "client-error"
last_verified: "2026-08-11"
source: "https://lemwatch.com"
---

# HTTP 413 Payload Too Large

**Summary** — The request body is larger than the server is willing to accept.

## What it means

HTTP 413 Payload Too Large (formerly "Request Entity Too Large") means the request body exceeds the server's size limit. Common with file uploads, large form submissions, or API requests with excessive data.

## Common causes

- File upload exceeds server limit
- Large JSON payload in API request
- Nginx/Apache body size limit reached
- Proxy or WAF size restriction

## How to fix

- Increase client_max_body_size in Nginx
- Increase LimitRequestBody in Apache
- Implement chunked file uploads
- Compress request data

## SEO impact

No direct SEO impact. Affects file upload functionality.

## Monitoring tip

LemWatch can monitor your upload endpoints to ensure they handle files within your expected size limits.

**Related:** [400](https://lemwatch.com/http-status-codes/400.md), [414](https://lemwatch.com/http-status-codes/414.md)

_Canonical HTML page: https://lemwatch.com/http-status-codes/413_