The HTTP 414 URI Too Long client error response status code indicates that a URI requested by the client was longer than the server is willing to interpret.

There are a few rare conditions when this error might occur:

• a client has improperly converted a POST request to a GET request with long query information,
• a client has descended into a loop of redirection (for example, a redirected URI prefix that points to a suffix of itself), or
• the server is under attack by a client attempting to exploit potential security holes.

Some systems implement 414 URI Too Long as 414 Request-URI Too Large.

Status

414 URI Too Long

Examples

Form submission using GET

In the following example, an HTML <form> method accidentally uses get instead of post. A large amount of form data is appended to the URL specified at the form's action attribute and is sent as a GET request:

GET /search?feedback=it+was+the+best+of+times+it+was+the+worst+of+times… HTTP/1.1
Host: example.com

The particular server's URI length limit is reached with this request and a 414 is sent in response:

HTTP/1.1 414 URI Too Long
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
Date: Fri, 28 Jun 2024 11:40:58 GMT
Content-Length: 1234

<!doctype html>
<head>
  <title>414 - URI Too Long</title>
</head>
  <body>
    <h1>414 - URI Too Long</h1>
    <p>The URI provided was too long for the server to process.</p>
  </body>
</html>

Specifications

See also

• HTTP response status codes
• URI