HTTP 418 I’m a teapot — Meaning, Causes & How to Fix

Code

418

Name

I’m a teapot

Class

4xx Client Error

Specification

RFC 2324 (HTCPCP); listed as “(Unused)” in RFC 9110 §15.5.19

Cacheable by default

Only with explicit Cache-Control / Expires

What HTTP 418 means

418 I’m a teapot comes from RFC 2324, a 1998 April Fools’ RFC defining a protocol for controlling coffee pots: a teapot asked to brew coffee answers 418. It has no meaning in real HTTP. RFC 9110 marks it “(Unused)” and reserves the number so nobody assigns it to something else.

Common causes

• Easter eggs in frameworks and websites.
• Some services using it jokingly to reject bots or unwanted requests.

How to fix it

For site owners

• Do not use 418 in production APIs — clients have no defined way to handle it. Use 403, 429 or another standard code.

For visitors & developers

• If you get a 418 from a real service, read the body — it is a custom signal (often a bot block).

SEO impact

Treated like any other 4xx: the page is not indexed. Never serve it to crawlers on real pages.

Example 418 response

HTTP/1.1 418 I'm a teapot
Content-Type: text/plain

I refuse to brew coffee.

Related status codes

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