Error Codes Wiki

HTTP 411 Length Required — What It Means & How to Fix It

Error4xx client error

Overview

The HTTP 411 Length Required status code indicates the server requires the Content-Length header in the request, but it was not provided.

Key Details

  • The server refuses to accept the request without a valid Content-Length header.
  • This header tells the server the size of the request body in bytes.
  • The client should add the Content-Length header and retry the request.
  • Some servers require this for all requests with a body.

Common Causes

  • The request body was sent without a Content-Length header.
  • Chunked transfer encoding was used but the server requires a known content length.
  • A proxy stripped the Content-Length header from the request.

Steps

  1. 1Add a Content-Length header to your request with the correct body size in bytes.
  2. 2If using chunked encoding, switch to sending the full body with Content-Length.
  3. 3Check if a proxy is stripping required headers.
  4. 4Verify your HTTP client library is setting Content-Length automatically.

Tags

httpclient-errorcontent-lengthheader

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Frequently Asked Questions

It means the server requires a Content-Length header in the request but none was provided. Add the header with the size of your request body.