ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED: What It Means and How to Fix It

ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED: what it means

To open a website, the browser looks up the server's IP address through DNS and "knocks on the door" on a port: 443 for https or 80 for http. Here the address was found and something answered, but the answer was a flat "no". It is like going to a shop at the right address and finding the door locked.

The difference from ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT: there nobody answers at all, here the refusal comes immediately.

How it looks in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari

If you are a visitor

1. Try another network. Open the site on your phone over mobile data, with Wi-Fi off. If it opens there but not from home or the office, the server has probably blocked your network's public IP.
2. Turn off any VPN or proxy. Your traffic may be leaving from an address the server rejects.
3. Check your antivirus firewall. Pause it briefly as a test, then switch it back on.
4. Check the address. A wrong port (e.g. company.com:8080) sends you to a closed port. Try the plain form https://company.com.
5. See whether it is down for everyone with the Uptime Checker (below).
6. On localhost? If you are a developer and see it on localhost or 127.0.0.1, your local development server is not running or listens on a different port.

If you own the website: the usual causes

1. The web server has stopped. The service that serves your pages is not running, often after a restart, an update or a bad configuration change. On your own server start it again and check its log; on shared hosting, contact your provider.
2. The A record points to an IP with no website. E.g. the old server after a migration, or an IP with a mistyped digit. Use the DNS Checker to see where the domain points and IP WHOIS to confirm the IP belongs to your provider. See also who hosts my domain.
3. Port 443 (https) is not answering. If SSL was never set up, http:// often opens while https:// is refused. Enable a certificate: free SSL with Let's Encrypt.
4. The firewall blocked specific visitors. Classic symptom: "it opens on my phone but not at the office". Many servers automatically block an IP after repeated failed logins (email, FTP, admin), and in many setups the block covers the website too. The whole office shares one public IP, so everyone is locked out. Ask your provider to unblock it. Depending on the firewall, the same block can also show as ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT.
5. Suspended hosting account. After a suspension (e.g. an unpaid renewal) the server may stop serving the site; sometimes you will see a suspension page instead.
6. Site behind Cloudflare. Visitors then see a 521 error instead of ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED: see Cloudflare errors 521, 522, 525, 526.

Check whether it is the site or your connection

• Online in the tool, refused for you: the problem is on your side (network, antivirus, VPN) or the server has blocked your IP.
• Offline with "Connection refused": it refuses us too, so the site is at fault.
• http:// answers, https:// does not: port 443 is not set up. The SSL Checker will report a connection failure instead of certificate details.

More: my website won't open, pointing a domain to new hosting and 500, 502, 503, 504 errors.

Common mistakes

• Concluding the site is down because it won't open from the office, without trying another network, or the reverse: "it opens for me, so all is fine".
• Clearing cache and cookies over and over. They have nothing to do with a refused connection, unless the site's IP changed recently and your computer remembers the old one.
• Closing the old hosting account before confirming that DNS points to the new server.