Skip to content

421 Misdirected Request ​

Meaning ​

The request was directed to a server that is not able to produce a response (for example, the request was sent to the wrong server due to reuse of a connection).

When to Use ​

When the server host name in the request (URL) doesn’t match the server that received the request, often due to a connection reuse or misconfiguration in HTTP/2. The server signals that it cannot respond because it wasn’t meant to receive that request.

Example ​

In an HTTP/2 connection, if a client erroneously reuses a connection for the wrong host, that server may respond with 421 Misdirected Request, telling the client to retry on a correct connection.

When Not to Use ​

Do not use for general routing failures. This is specific to scenarios like virtual host misrouting. If the request is correctly routed but fails for other reasons, use a different status code.

Source ​

RFC 9110


Released under the MIT License.