HTTP 444 No Response

What does HTTP 444 mean?

Nginx closed the connection without sending any response. Nginx uses return 444; internally to drop unwanted requests — bad bots, requests with an unknown Host header, or blocked countries. The client never sees the code; it sees an empty reply or a connection reset.

4xx Client error: The request has a problem the client can fix: wrong URL, missing credentials, bad data or too many requests.

Common causes of a 444 error

• A server block configured with return 444 for unknown hosts or bots.
• Rate limiting or security rules that silently drop requests.

How to fix 444 No Response

• If your own requests are dropped, check nginx rules that use return 444 and your server_name settings.
• Make sure legitimate clients send the right Host header.

444 and SEO

If Googlebot hits rules that return 444, pages can’t be crawled. Allow verified crawlers before dropping traffic.

Example response

HTTP/1.1 444 No Response

Related status codes

• 403 Forbidden — The server understood the request but refuses to authorise it.
• 499 Client Closed Request — Nginx logs 499 when the client closed the connection before the server answered.
• 429 Too Many Requests — The client sent too many requests in a given amount of time.

Check which status code a URL returns with the HTTP header checker.