Error: request entity too large

I had the same error recently, and all the solutions I've found did not work.

After some digging, I found that setting app.use(express.bodyParser({limit: '50mb'})); did set the limit correctly.

When adding a console.log('Limit file size: '+limit); in node_modules/express/node_modules/connect/lib/middleware/json.js:46 and restarting node, I get this output in the console:

Limit file size: 1048576
connect.multipart() will be removed in connect 3.0
visit https://github.com/senchalabs/connect/wiki/Connect-3.0 for alternatives
connect.limit() will be removed in connect 3.0
Limit file size: 52428800
Express server listening on port 3002

We can see that at first, when loading the connect module, the limit is set to 1mb (1048576 bytes). Then when I set the limit, the console.log is called again and this time the limit is 52428800 (50mb). However, I still get a 413 Request entity too large.

Then I added console.log('Limit file size: '+limit); in node_modules/express/node_modules/connect/node_modules/raw-body/index.js:10 and saw another line in the console when calling the route with a big request (before the error output) :

Limit file size: 1048576

This means that somehow, somewhere, connect resets the limit parameter and ignores what we specified. I tried specifying the bodyParser parameters in the route definition individually, but no luck either.

While I did not find any proper way to set it permanently, you can "patch" it in the module directly. If you are using Express 3.4.4, add this at line 46 of node_modules/express/node_modules/connect/lib/middleware/json.js :

limit = 52428800; // for 50mb, this corresponds to the size in bytes

The line number might differ if you don't run the same version of Express. Please note that this is bad practice and it will be overwritten if you update your module.

So this temporary solution works for now, but as soon as a solution is found (or the module fixed, in case it's a module problem) you should update your code accordingly.

I have opened an issue on their GitHub about this problem.

[edit - found the solution]

After some research and testing, I found that when debugging, I added app.use(express.bodyParser({limit: '50mb'}));, but after app.use(express.json());. Express would then set the global limit to 1mb because the first parser he encountered when running the script was express.json(). Moving bodyParser above it did the trick.

That said, the bodyParser() method will be deprecated in Connect 3.0 and should not be used. Instead, you should declare your parsers explicitly, like so :

app.use(express.json({limit: '50mb'}));
app.use(express.urlencoded({limit: '50mb'}));

In case you need multipart (for file uploads) see this post.

[second edit]

Note that in Express 4, instead of express.json() and express.urlencoded(), you must require the body-parser module and use its json() and urlencoded() methods, like so:

var bodyParser = require('body-parser');
app.use(bodyParser.json({limit: '50mb'}));
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({limit: '50mb', extended: true}));

If the extended option is not explicitly defined for bodyParser.urlencoded(), it will throw a warning (body-parser deprecated undefined extended: provide extended option). This is because this option will be required in the next version and will not be optional anymore. For more info on the extended option, you can refer to the readme of body-parser.

[third edit]

It seems that in Express v4.16.0 onwards, we can go back to the initial way of doing this (thanks to @GBMan for the tip):

app.use(express.json({limit: '50mb'}));
app.use(express.urlencoded({limit: '50mb'}));

---

In my case it was not enough to add these lines :

var bodyParser = require('body-parser');
app.use(bodyParser.json({limit: '50mb'}));
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({limit: '50mb', extended: true}));

I tried adding the parameterLimit option on urlencoded function as the documentation says and error no longer appears.

The parameterLimit option controls the maximum number of parameters that are allowed in the URL-encoded data. If a request contains more parameters than this value, a 413 will be returned to the client. Defaults to 1000.

Try with this code:

var bodyParser = require('body-parser');
app.use(bodyParser.json({limit: "50mb"}));
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({limit: "50mb", extended: true, parameterLimit:50000}));

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If someone tried all the answers, but hadn't had any success yet and uses NGINX to host the site add this line to /etc/nginx/sites-available

client_max_body_size 100M; #100mb

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I don't think this is the express global size limit, but specifically the connect.json middleware limit. This is 1MB by default when you use express.bodyParser() and don't provide a limit option.

Try:

app.post('/api/0.1/people', express.bodyParser({limit: '5mb'}), yourHandler);

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For express ~4.16.0, express.json with limit works directly

app.use(express.json({limit: '50mb'}));

---

in my case .. setting parameterLimit:50000 fixed the problem

app.use( bodyParser.json({limit: '50mb'}) );
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({
  limit: '50mb',
  extended: true,
  parameterLimit:50000
}));

---

The following worked for me... Just use

app.use(bodyParser({limit: '50mb'}));

that's it.

Tried all above and none worked. Found that even though we use like the following,

app.use(bodyParser());
app.use(bodyParser({limit: '50mb'}));
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({limit: '50mb'}));

only the 1st app.use(bodyParser()); one gets defined and the latter two lines were ignored.

Refer: https://github.com/expressjs/body-parser/issues/176 >> see 'dougwilson commented on Jun 17, 2016'

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2016, none of the above worked for me until i explicity set the 'type' in addition to the 'limit' for bodyparser, example:

  var app = express();
  var jsonParser       = bodyParser.json({limit:1024*1024*20, type:'application/json'});
  var urlencodedParser = bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended:true,limit:1024*1024*20,type:'application/x-www-form-urlencoded' })

  app.use(jsonParser);
  app.use(urlencodedParser);

---

In my case the problem was on Nginx configuration. To solve it I have to edit the file: /etc/nginx/nginx.conf and add this line inside server block:

client_max_body_size 5M;

Restart Nginx and the problems its gone

sudo systemctl restart nginx

---

The setting below has worked for me

Express 4.16.1

app.use(bodyParser.json({ limit: '50mb' }))
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({
  limit: '50mb',
  extended: false,
}))

Nginx

client_max_body_size 50m;
client_body_temp_path /data/temp;

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After דo many tries I got my solution

I have commented this line

app.use(bodyParser.json());

and I put

app.use(bodyParser.json({limit: '50mb'}))

Then it works

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A slightly different approach - the payload is too BIG

All the helpful answers so far deal with increasing the payload limit. But it might also be the case that the payload is indeed too big but for no good reason. If there's no valid reason for it to be, consider looking into why it's so bloated in the first place.

Our own experience

For example, in our case, an Angular app was greedily sending an entire object in the payload. When one bloated and redundant property was removed, the payload size was reduced by a factor of a 100. This significantly improved performance and resolved the 413 error.

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Little old post but I had the same problem

Using express 4.+ my code looks like this and it works great after two days of extensive testing.

var url         = require('url'),
    homePath    = __dirname + '/../',
    apiV1       = require(homePath + 'api/v1/start'),
    bodyParser  = require('body-parser').json({limit:'100mb'});

module.exports = function(app){
    app.get('/', function (req, res) {
        res.render( homePath + 'public/template/index');
    });

    app.get('/api/v1/', function (req, res) {
        var query = url.parse(req.url).query;
        if ( !query ) {
            res.redirect('/');
        }
        apiV1( 'GET', query, function (response) {
            res.json(response);
        });
    });

    app.get('*', function (req,res) {
        res.redirect('/');
    });

    app.post('/api/v1/', bodyParser, function (req, res) {
        if ( !req.body ) {
            res.json({
                status: 'error',
                response: 'No data to parse'
            });
        }
        apiV1( 'POST', req.body, function (response) {
            res.json(response);
        });
    });
};

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Pass the below configs to your server to increase your request size.

app.use(express.json({ extended: false, limit: '50mb' }))
app.use(express.urlencoded({ limit: '50mb', extended: false, parameterLimit: 50000 }))

---

I've used another practice for this problem with multer dependancie.

Example:

multer = require('multer');

var uploading = multer({
  limits: {fileSize: 1000000, files:1},
});

exports.uploadpictureone = function(req, res) {
  cloudinary.uploader.upload(req.body.url, function(result) {
    res.send(result);
  });
};

module.exports = function(app) {
    app.route('/api/upload', uploading).all(uploadPolicy.isAllowed)
        .post(upload.uploadpictureone);
};

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for me following snippet solved the problem.

var bodyParser = require('body-parser');
app.use(bodyParser.json({limit: '50mb'})); 

---

After trying everything in this post, i was unsuccessful. But I found a solution that worked for me. I was able to solve it without using the body-parser and only with the express. It looked like this:

const express = require('express');    

const app = express();
app.use(express.json({limit: '25mb'}));
app.use(express.urlencoded({limit: '25mb', extended: true}));

Don't forget to use extended: true to remove the deprecated message from the console.

---

I too faced that issue, I was making a silly mistake by repeating the app.use(bodyParser.json()) like below:

app.use(bodyParser.json())
app.use(bodyParser.json({ limit: '50mb' }))

by removing app.use(bodyParser.json()), solved the problem.

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In my case removing Content-type from the request headers worked.

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If you are using express.json() and bodyParser together it will give error as express sets its own limit.

app.use(express.json());
app.use(express.urlencoded({ extended: false }));

remove above code and just add below code

app.use(bodyParser.json({ limit: "200mb" }));
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ limit: "200mb",  extended: true, parameterLimit: 1000000 }));

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I faced the same issue recently and bellow solution workes for me.

Dependency : express >> version : 4.17.1 body-parser >> version": 1.19.0

const express = require('express');
const bodyParser = require('body-parser');

const app = express(); 
app.use(bodyParser.json({limit: '50mb'}));
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({limit: '50mb', extended: true}));

For understanding : HTTP 431

The HTTP 413 Payload Too Large response status code indicates that the request entity is larger than limits defined by server; the server might close the connection or return a Retry-After header field.

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The better use you can specify the limit of your file size as it is shown in the given lines:

app.use(bodyParser.json({limit: '10mb', extended: true}))
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({limit: '10mb', extended: true}))

You can also change the default setting in node-modules body-parser then in the lib folder, there are JSON and text file. Then change limit here. Actually, this condition pass if you don't pass the limit parameter in the given line app.use(bodyParser.json({limit: '10mb', extended: true})).

---

Just adding this one line must solve it actually

app.use(express.json({limit: '50mb'}));

Also recommend you guys to send the whole image to the backend then convert it rather then sending the data from the frontend

---

Express 4.17.1

app.use( express.urlencoded( {
    extended: true,
    limit: '50mb'
} ) )

Demo csb

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Following code resolved my issue:

var bodyParser = require('body-parser');
var urlencodedParser = bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: false, limit: '5mb' });

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For me the main trick is

app.use(bodyParser.json({
  limit: '20mb'
}));

app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({
  limit: '20mb',
  parameterLimit: 100000,
  extended: true 
}));

bodyParse.json first bodyParse.urlencoded second

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For those who start the NodeJS app in Azure under IIS, do not forget to modify web.config as explained here Azure App Service IIS "maxRequestLength" setting

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I am using multer to upload files to AWS s3. For me, after adding client_max_body_size 100M; into nginx file, I get 400 error. (but the 413 error is gone, this means that it successfully went through nginx and reach your server)

Solution is below: https://stackoverflow.com/a/71240419/15477963

My app.js file did not need to change, and remain like this, which works:

const express = require('express');
const bodyParser = require('body-parser');
app.use(bodyParser.json());
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: true }));

---

Work for me:

Config nginx max file zise [https://patriciahillebrandt.com/nginx-413-request-entity-too-large/][1]

and

app.use(bodyParser.json({ limit: "200mb" }));
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ limit: "200mb",  extended: true, parameterLimit: 1000000 }));

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To add to Alexander's answer.

By default, NGINX has an upload limit of 1 MB per file. By limiting the file size of uploads, you can prevent some types of Denial-of-service (DOS) attacks and many other issues.

So when you try to upload a file above the 1MB limit you will run into a 413 error.

By editing client_max_body_size, you can adjust the file upload size. Use the http, server, or location block to edit client_max_body_size.

server {
  server_name example.com;

  location / {
    proxy_set_header HOST $host;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;

    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
    client_max_body_size 20M;
  }

    listen [::]:443 ssl ipv6only=on; # managed by Certbot
    listen 443 ssl; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/infohob.com/fullchain.pem; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/infohob.com/privkey.pem; # managed by Certbot
    include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/ssl-dhparams.pem; # managed by Certbot

}

Reference: Limit File Upload Size in NGINX

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