Uploading large files to Strapi: every limit you have to raise

Strapi upload failures with HTTP 413 errors can result from four separate limits in the request path: a reverse proxy such as Nginx, Strapi’s body middleware using Formidable, the Upload plugin’s sizeLimit setting, and the selected storage provider’s own restrictions. Each layer must permit the intended file size, with Nginx often rejecting requests before Strapi receives them, while distinct HTML, JSON, timeout, provider, and out-of-memory errors help identify the responsible component. Configuration changes should preserve Strapi’s complete default middleware list, place Upload plugin settings in config/plugins, account for stale provider options that can override newer values, and be followed by a rebuild or restart and boundary testing through the API. Provider and platform limits, including Cloudflare plan caps, S3 single-upload constraints, Cloudinary limits, and Strapi Cloud’s fixed non-image cap, cannot be changed through Strapi configuration. For uploads of several hundred megabytes or more, memory consumption, long-running connections, proxy timeouts, and bandwidth costs may make direct-to-storage uploads using presigned URLs a more reliable architecture than routing files through Strapi.

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