Laravel applications may return a 404 Not Found<\/strong> error when accessing application routes or API endpoints through Nginx, even though the application homepage works correctly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This commonly occurs when Nginx is not configured to forward requests to Laravel’s front controller, In this guide, we will explain how to configure Nginx to correctly handle Laravel routes and API endpoints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before proceeding, make sure you have:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Open the Nginx virtual host configuration for your Laravel application:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If your Laravel application has a separate virtual host, edit that configuration instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For a standard Laravel application, configure the This configuration checks whether the requested file or directory exists. If it does not, Nginx forwards the request to Laravel’s This allows Laravel to process routes such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Laravel applications, the Nginx document root should point to the For example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n A basic server configuration can look like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Replace the application path and PHP-FPM socket according to your server environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After making the changes, test the Nginx configuration:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the configuration test succeeds, reload Nginx:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Test the application routes from a browser or using For an API endpoint:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The requests should now be handled by Laravel instead of returning an Nginx 404 response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the Laravel route still returns 404, check the following.<\/p>\n\n\n\n List the registered routes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Confirm that the requested route exists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the route was recently added or modified, clear the application caches:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Review the Nginx error log:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Laravel application errors can usually be found under:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Make sure the web server has the appropriate permissions to access the Laravel application files and write to required directories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Laravel route returning 404 on Nginx is commonly caused by an incorrect Nginx routing configuration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The key configuration is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n For modern Laravel deployments, also ensure that the Nginx document root points to the application’s After updating the configuration, validate it with Nginx may not be forwarding requests for non-existent files to Laravel’s index.php<\/code>. Unlike Apache, Nginx does not use .htaccess<\/code> files for URL rewriting, so the required routing rules must be configured directly in the Nginx server configuration.<\/p>\n\n\n\nPrerequisites<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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public<\/code> directory.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nImplementation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Step 1: Open the Nginx Configuration<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
sudo vi \/etc\/nginx\/sites-enabled\/default<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Step 2: Configure Laravel URL Routing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
location \/<\/code> block as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\nlocation \/ {\n try_files $uri $uri\/ \/index.php?$query_string;\n}<\/pre>\n\n\n\nindex.php<\/code>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\/login\n\/admin\n\/dashboard\n\/api\/users<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Step 3: Configure the Laravel Document Root<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
public<\/code> directory.<\/p>\n\n\n\nroot \/var\/www\/example.com\/public;\nindex index.php index.html;<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
server {\n listen 80;\n server_name example.com;\n\n root \/var\/www\/example.com\/public;\n index index.php index.html;\n\n location \/ {\n try_files $uri $uri\/ \/index.php?$query_string;\n }\n\n location ~ \\.php$ {\n include snippets\/fastcgi-php.conf;\n fastcgi_pass unix:\/run\/php\/php8.3-fpm.sock;\n }\n}<\/pre>\n\n\n\nStep 4: Verify the Nginx Configuration<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
sudo nginx -t<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
sudo systemctl reload nginx<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Step 5: Test the Laravel Routes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
curl<\/code>:<\/p>\n\n\n\ncurl -I https:\/\/example.com\/login<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
curl -I https:\/\/example.com\/api\/users<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Troubleshooting<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Check Laravel Routes<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
php artisan route:list<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Clear Laravel Caches<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
php artisan optimize:clear<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Check Nginx Error Logs<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
sudo tail -f \/var\/log\/nginx\/error.log<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Check Laravel Logs<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
storage\/logs\/<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
location \/ {\n try_files $uri $uri\/ \/index.php?$query_string;\n}<\/pre>\n\n\n\npublic<\/code> directory.<\/p>\n\n\n\nnginx -t<\/code>, reload Nginx, and verify the Laravel routes using php artisan route:list<\/code>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nFrequently Asked Questions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
1. Why does Laravel return 404 for routes on Nginx?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
index.php<\/code>. The try_files<\/code> directive is required to route these requests through Laravel’s front controller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n2. Why does the Laravel homepage work but
\/login<\/code> return 404?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n