What causes "HTTP 403 Forbidden"?

File or directory permissions are too restrictive on the server (chmod) Missing index file in a directory with directory listing disabled AWS S3 bucket policy or IAM role does not allow the action IP address is blocked by a firewall rule or .htaccess API key or token does not have the required scope/permission

HTTP Error3 Fixes Available

403 Forbidden — Access Denied

HTTP 403 Forbidden

What does this error mean?

A 403 Forbidden response means the server understood your request but refuses to authorize it. Unlike 401 (Unauthorized), re-authenticating won't help — you simply don't have permission to access the resource.

Common Causes

File or directory permissions are too restrictive on the server (chmod)
Missing index file in a directory with directory listing disabled
AWS S3 bucket policy or IAM role does not allow the action
IP address is blocked by a firewall rule or .htaccess
API key or token does not have the required scope/permission

How to Fix It (3 Solutions)

Fix file permissions on Linux/Nginx

Web server files typically need 644 permissions and directories need 755.

Code

# Fix file permissions
chmod 644 /var/www/html/index.html

# Fix directory permissions  
chmod 755 /var/www/html/

# Fix ownership
chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/

Fix AWS S3 bucket policy

Add a bucket policy that allows public read access for static hosting.

Code

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [{
    "Effect": "Allow",
    "Principal": "*",
    "Action": "s3:GetObject",
    "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::your-bucket-name/*"
  }]
}

Check your API token scopes

Verify the API key has the required permissions for the endpoint you are calling.

Fix this error faster with our free tool

Chmod Calculator

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Related Errors

HTTP

401 Unauthorized — Authentication Required

404 Not Found

500 Internal Server Error

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