218 This Is Fine
Non-standard code used by cPanel builds of Apache in place of a 4xx or 5xx so that the response body still reaches the client.
Status
HTTP/1.1 218 This Is Fine
Details
- Category: 2xx
- Status: Unofficial (cPanel builds of Apache). Not registered with IANA. A server, framework, or CDN convention.
- Specification: none, not defined by any RFC
- Cacheable: Only with explicit cache headers
- Response body: Allowed
- Retry: Retry only after changing the request
218 is not in the IANA registry. It comes from cPanel's Apache configuration, which uses it as a catch-all success code when an error occurs but the operator wants the error document delivered to the browser with a 2xx status.
Treat it as a red flag rather than a success. It means the real outcome was an error that has been laundered into the 2xx range, so client retry logic, monitoring, and caches will all draw the wrong conclusion.
Common causes
- A cPanel-managed Apache server hit an error and was configured to return the error document with a 2xx status.
How to fix it
As the client
- Do not treat 218 as a genuine success. Inspect the body, which usually contains a real error page.
- Add it to whatever status handling maps unknown 2xx codes, so it is logged rather than silently accepted.
As the server
- Return the accurate status code. Masking errors as 2xx hides outages from monitoring and breaks client retries.
Examples
GET /app/index.php HTTP/1.1 Host: legacy.example.com HTTP/1.1 218 This Is Fine Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8