500 Internal Server Error

The short version: A 500 means the website's server ran into a problem and couldn't finish the request. Visiting? Reload and try again in a bit. Running the website? Open the server error log to find the real cause, then work through your .htaccess, PHP memory limit, plugins, and recent deploys.

Key takeaways

• The 500 is the web's default shrug for a server-side failure. RFC 9110 frames it as the code a server returns when it hits something unexpected, can't finish the request, and has nothing more precise to send back.
• On its own the code tells you nothing about why. A PHP fatal error, a broken .htaccess rule, an exhausted memory limit, the wrong file permissions: each one can produce the exact same blank 500. The answer is in the server error log.
• For a visitor, it's almost certainly the website at fault, not you. Reload, clear the cache, and pass along the URL and the time it happened. Whatever needs fixing lives on the owner's server.
• A 502, 503, or 504 points at a gateway, a timeout, or a refusal. A 500 is different: the application broke right where it ran. That sends you straight to the app's own code, config, and log.
• A 500 can take out one route and leave everything else running fine. So a bad deploy can quietly sit broken on a single template or form handler, unnoticed, unless someone is actually watching that URL.

Error type

HTTP 5xx server error

Whose side

Almost always the website

Fix difficulty

Moderate (website owner)

Common cause

Server-side fault with no specific code

What does 500 Internal Server Error mean?

A 500 Internal Server Error is the web's generic, catch-all way of saying something broke on the server side. MDN and RFC 9110 describe it the same way: the server returns a 500 when it runs into an unexpected condition that stops it fulfilling the request, and it has no more specific 5xx code to reach for. The server knows it failed. It just can't, or won't, tell you how.

That vagueness is by design, so the code on its own never gives you the cause. One blank 500 page can be standing in for a fatal PHP error, a broken .htaccess rule, an exhausted memory limit, or wrong file permissions. The real story sits in the server's error log, not in the browser. Treat the status as the symptom and the log as the diagnosis.

500

HTTP status code

5xx

Server-error class it belongs to

0

Details the generic message gives you

How the 500 Internal Server Error error appears

The wording changes depending on your browser, device, or server. Here is how this error commonly shows up:

example.com

500

Internal Server Error

The server encountered an internal error and could not complete your request.

• 500 Internal Server Error
• HTTP 500 / HTTP Error 500
• Error 500 / 500 Error
• Internal Server Error
• 500. That's an error. / Something went wrong
• nginx 500 / HTTP ERROR 500

500 vs 502, 503 and 504

All four are 5xx server-side errors, but they point at different failures and different people to chase.

Where each 5xx error fails in the stack

All four are server-side, but they break at different hops, which tells you which log to open and who to chase.

What causes 500 Internal Server Error?

• A PHP fatal error or an unhandled exception, whether in the website's own code or in a plugin
• A corrupted or misconfigured .htaccess file carrying an invalid directive
• An exhausted PHP memory limit, where a script asks for more RAM than it is allowed
• Wrong permissions on a file or folder (files want 644, folders want 755)
• A plugin or theme clashing with something, frequently right after an update
• A broken code change or bad deploy that pushed a syntax error live
• Trouble on the server itself: a misconfiguration, an incompatible PHP version, or a CGI/script error

How to find the cause fast

1. Go to the server error log first. It names the exact file and line that failed, the detail the 500 page deliberately hides.
2. Switch on debug or error display (WordPress WP_DEBUG, for instance) so the real message actually gets written down.
3. Ask what changed. A 500 that just appeared usually traces straight back to the last deploy, update, or edited config file.
4. Narrow it down: turn plugins off one by one and drop to a default theme to see whether the error clears.

Terminal

curl -sI https://example.comHTTP/1.1 500 Internal Server Error# then read the app log for the stack trace:tail -n 1 /var/log/nginx/error.log[error] FastCGI sent in stderr: "PHP Fatal error: ..."

How 500 Internal Server Error looks from the outside

An uptime monitor like Pulsetic checks your website from 15+ locations every 30 seconds, so a 500 reaches you from the outside, the way real visitors see it, instead of arriving as an angry email. The instant a 500 comes back, you get an alert by email, SMS, voice, Slack, Discord, Telegram, or webhook, carrying the failing URL and the status code. What it can't do is name the plugin or the PHP line that broke. It reads availability from the outside, not CPU, memory, or your error log. So take the alert as the starting gun: it tells you the page is down right now, and then you open the server log to find out why.

To confirm the exact code a URL returns, or to re-test several at once after a fix, run them through the free bulk URL status checker.

How to fix 500 Internal Server Error

If you are a visitor

1. Reload. A lot of 500s are momentary and clear on the very next request.
2. Hard refresh and clear the browser cache (Ctrl+F5 or Cmd+Shift+R) in case a stale response is sitting in there.
3. Give it a few minutes and come back. The owner might be mid-fix, or the server briefly buckled under load.
4. Open the website in a private window or a different browser to rule out anything on your end.
5. Still stuck? Send the owner the exact URL and time. The error is theirs to fix, not yours.

If you run the website

1. Open the server error log (host panel, or wherever your app writes its log) and read the most recent fatal error.
2. Switch on debugging or error display so you capture the real message instead of the blank 500.
3. Regenerate .htaccess: rename the old file, reload, then re-save permalinks to get a clean one.
4. If the log shows memory exhaustion, raise the PHP memory limit, for example WP_MEMORY_LIMIT to 256M.
5. Fix permissions: files to 644, folders to 755. Never 777.
6. Disable plugins or extensions one at a time, and drop to a default theme, to surface a conflict.
7. Look at your most recent deploy or code change, and roll it back if that's where the error started.
8. Confirm your PHP version is compatible with the app, then call your host if the log points at the server.

Still not fixed? Next steps

• Start with the server error log. It hands you the exact file, line, and message the 500 page is hiding, and that's the only dependable route to the real cause.
• Ask what changed. When a 500 shows up out of nowhere, the trigger is nearly always the last deploy, a plugin or theme update, or a config file someone just edited. Roll that change back to prove it.
• Track down the culprit by switching things off in sequence: disable plugins or extensions one at a time, drop to a default theme. When the error vanishes, the last thing you toggled is your answer.
• When the log points at the server, not your code (an incompatible PHP version, a CGI error, a host-level misconfiguration), there's nothing for you to patch. Hand your host the URL and the timestamp.

Code & configuration

Copy-paste starting points. Replace example.com and the paths with your own, and test changes on staging before production.

Turn on WordPress debugging to reveal the real error

// In wp-config.php, above "That's all, stop editing"
define( 'WP_DEBUG', true );
define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true );
define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false );
// Read the result in wp-content/debug.log

Rename a corrupted .htaccess so the server ignores it

# Over SFTP or the host file manager, in the web root:
mv .htaccess .htaccess_old
# Reload the website. In WordPress, then re-save
# Settings > Permalinks to generate a clean .htaccess

Raise the PHP memory limit and fix file permissions

# In wp-config.php:
define( 'WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M' );

# Standard permissions over SSH:
find . -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
find . -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

How to prevent 500 Internal Server Error

A 500 can knock out a single page or your entire website, and it almost never warns you first. Pulsetic checks your website from multiple locations every 30 seconds and alerts you by email, SMS, voice call, Slack, Discord, Telegram, or webhook the moment a page starts throwing 500s or stops answering. It won't read your error log for you, but it tells you the instant something breaks, and the instant it's back, so a bad deploy can't sit broken for hours.

Learn how Pulsetic's uptime monitoring detects this from the outside, across 15+ locations.