axios/axios · error · AxiosError

ETIMEDOUT|ECONNABORTED

ETIMEDOUT|ECONNABORTED

Error message

timeout of ${_config.timeout}ms exceeded

What it means

Rejected from the XHR adapter's `ontimeout` handler when the request exceeded `config.timeout` milliseconds (set directly on request.timeout at line 41, so the browser enforces it across the whole request lifetime). With the default transitional.clarifyTimeoutError=false the code is ECONNABORTED for backward compatibility; setting clarifyTimeoutError: true yields the more accurate ETIMEDOUT. The message can be overridden with config.timeoutErrorMessage.

Source

Thrown at lib/adapters/xhr.js:166

        const err = new AxiosError(msg, AxiosError.ERR_NETWORK, config, request);
        // attach the underlying event for consumers who want details
        err.event = event || null;
        reject(err);
        done();
        request = null;
      };

      // Handle timeout
      request.ontimeout = function handleTimeout() {
        let timeoutErrorMessage = _config.timeout
          ? 'timeout of ' + _config.timeout + 'ms exceeded'
          : 'timeout exceeded';
        const transitional = _config.transitional || transitionalDefaults;
        if (_config.timeoutErrorMessage) {
          timeoutErrorMessage = _config.timeoutErrorMessage;
        }
        reject(
          new AxiosError(
            timeoutErrorMessage,
            transitional.clarifyTimeoutError ? AxiosError.ETIMEDOUT : AxiosError.ECONNABORTED,
            config,
            request
          )
        );
        done();

        // Clean up request
        request = null;
      };

      // Remove Content-Type if data is undefined
      requestData === undefined && requestHeaders.setContentType(null);

      // Add headers to the request
      if ('setRequestHeader' in request) {
        utils.forEach(toByteStringHeaderObject(requestHeaders), function setRequestHeader(val, key) {

View on GitHub (pinned to c3f553c740)

Solutions

1. Raise config.timeout for the slow endpoint (or set it per-request rather than globally), after confirming the server genuinely needs longer.
2. Investigate why the server is slow — the timeout is usually the messenger, not the bug.
3. Set transitional: { clarifyTimeoutError: true } so timeouts get code ETIMEDOUT and are distinguishable from aborts in error handling.
4. Add retry-with-backoff for idempotent requests that time out intermittently.
5. For user-driven cancellation of long requests, prefer AbortSignal.timeout(ms) via the signal option, which composes with other abort reasons.

Example fix

// before
const api = axios.create({ timeout: 3000 });
await api.get('/reports/annual'); // times out, code ECONNABORTED
// after
await api.get('/reports/annual', {
  timeout: 30000,
  transitional: { clarifyTimeoutError: true }, // rejects with ETIMEDOUT
});

const config = { timeout: 10000 };
if (!Number.isFinite(config.timeout) || config.timeout <= 0) {
  throw new Error('timeout must be a positive number of milliseconds');
}

import axios from 'axios';
function isTimeoutError(err) {
  return axios.isAxiosError(err) &&
    (err.code === 'ETIMEDOUT' || err.code === 'ECONNABORTED') &&
    /timeout/i.test(err.message);
}

try {
  await axios.get(url, { timeout: 10000 });
} catch (err) {
  if (axios.isAxiosError(err) && (err.code === 'ETIMEDOUT' || err.code === 'ECONNABORTED')) {
    // slow server/network: retry idempotent requests with a longer timeout or backoff
  } else {
    throw err;
  }
}

When it happens

Trigger: axios.get(url, {timeout: 5000}) where the server takes longer than 5s to fully respond; large uploads/downloads on slow links exceeding the timeout (XHR timeout covers the entire exchange, not just time-to-first-byte); an instance created with a small default timeout applied to a slow endpoint.

Common situations: A global axios.create({timeout: 3000}) instance later used for slow report/export endpoints; cold-start latency on serverless backends; timeouts appearing only in production due to network distance; confusing the ECONNABORTED code with an abort — check whether the message says 'timeout of Nms exceeded' to tell them apart.

Related errors

• ETIMEDOUT|ECONNABORTED
• Unknown adapter '${id}'
• ECONNABORTED
• ERR_NETWORK
• ERR_BAD_REQUEST

AI-assisted analysis of axios/axios@c3f553c740 (2026-07-31). Data as JSON: /data/errors/704eb693575d4b7b.json. Report an issue: GitHub.