Toronto SEO
All HTTP status codes
4xx Client Error
RFC 2324

418 I'm a teapot

Returned by teapots requested to brew coffee. (April Fools' joke from RFC 2324.)

What it means

HTTP 418 I'm a teapot is a humorous status code from RFC 2324 (HTCPCP — Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol). It is not a real status code in HTTP, but several real APIs use it as an Easter egg or to indicate a deliberate refusal that is not 403.

When it's used

Joke responses, Easter eggs, or playful refusals from APIs (notably used briefly by Google for some test endpoints).

Common causes
  • Developer Easter egg
  • Bot detection rejecting suspicious requests with humor
  • Sample API documentation
How to fix it
  • Not a real error — interpret as 'request refused for fun'
  • If from your own server, check whether it should be 403 or 451 instead
Example response
HTTP/1.1 418 I'm a teapot
Content-Type: text/plain

I cannot brew coffee, I am a teapot.
SEO impact

Treated as 4xx by crawlers — page will not be indexed.