JavaScript fetch with timeout using AbortSignal.timeout

JavaScript Dasun Kalupahana October 14, 2026 89 views

async function getJson(url, ms = 5000) {
  const res = await fetch(url, { signal: AbortSignal.timeout(ms) });
  if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`HTTP ${res.status}`);
  return res.json();
}

try {
  const data = await getJson('https://api.example.com/items');
  console.log(data);
} catch (err) {
  console.error(err.name === 'TimeoutError' ? 'Request timed out' : err.message);
}

Cancels a request automatically if the server takes too long. It also checks response.ok, because fetch does not throw on HTTP errors like 404 or 500.

#javascript #fetch #timeout #abortsignal #async-await #error-handling