418 I'm a teapot

What it means

Defined in the Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol. Some sites use it as an easter egg or to reject unwanted bots.

Common causes

• An easter egg or a deliberate bot-rejection response.

How to fix it

1. No fix needed unless it blocks real users; then review bot rules.

Example response

HTTP/1.1 418 I'm a teapot
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8

Worked example

A client sends a request the server cannot fulfill as submitted. Check the response body and request details, correct the input or permissions, and retry only after the relevant issue is resolved.

How to read this response

1. Find the status line in your browser's Network panel, API client, or server access log.
2. Read the response body and headers shown above; headers such as Location, Allow, Retry-After, and WWW-Authenticate explain the next step.
3. Use the code's class to orient your diagnosis: informational, successful, redirected, request-related, or server-side.

How to check a status code

Enter a URL in the HTTP Status Checker to see its status code, every redirect hop, and response time. For redirect-heavy pages, the Website Speed Test shows how much time redirects add.

Frequently asked questions

What it means: HTTP 418

418 I'm a teapot: An April Fools' joke status: the server refuses to brew coffee because it is a teapot.

Common causes: 418

An easter egg or a deliberate bot-rejection response.

How to fix it: HTTP 418

No fix needed unless it blocks real users; then review bot rules.

Tools