HTTP 504 Gateway Timeout

What is HTTP 504 Gateway Timeout?

The 504 (Gateway Timeout) status code indicates that the server, while acting as a gateway or proxy, did not receive a timely response from an upstream server. Unlike 502 (Bad Gateway) which indicates an invalid response, 504 specifically means the upstream server did not respond within the timeout period.

Common Use Cases

• Slow upstream database queries
• External API timeout behind proxy
• Application server hung or deadlocked
• CDN origin server timeout

# Nginx - increase proxy timeout for slow endpoints
location /api/reports {
    proxy_read_timeout 120s;
    proxy_connect_timeout 30s;
    proxy_pass http://backend;
}

# Laravel - increase PHP execution time for long requests
set_time_limit(120);