How to redirect HTTP to HTTPS in Nginx

Redirecting plain HTTP traffic to HTTPS forces browsers and API clients onto an encrypted connection, preventing credentials and session cookies from crossing the network in cleartext. It also consolidates a single canonical scheme for the site, reducing mixed-content warnings and inconsistent caching behavior.

In Nginx, the simplest pattern is a dedicated server block listening on port 80 that immediately returns a permanent redirect to the HTTPS URL. Using a return keeps the redirect fast and predictable, while $request_uri preserves the full path and query string without rewrite logic.

HTTPS should be working before enforcing redirection, because permanent redirects can be cached by clients and proxies and a broken TLS virtual host can cause effective lockouts. If port 80 is required for load balancer health checks or ACME HTTP-01 validation, ensure those endpoints still succeed or add an exception. Always validate syntax with nginx -t before reloading to avoid downtime from configuration errors.

1. Confirm the HTTPS virtual host returns a successful response.

   $ curl -I https://example.com/
   HTTP/1.1 200 OK
   Server: nginx
   Date: Sun, 14 Dec 2025 12:34:56 GMT
   Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
   ##### snipped #####

2. Open the Nginx virtual host configuration file for the domain.

   $ sudoedit /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com

   Common locations include /etc/nginx/sites-available/<site>/ (often enabled via /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/) and /etc/nginx/conf.d/<site>.conf/.

3. Add an HTTP server block that redirects all requests to HTTPS.

   server {
       listen 80;
       server_name example.com www.example.com;
   
       return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
   }

   Use return 308 when preserving HTTP methods matters, and use 302 temporarily during testing to reduce cached-redirect surprises.

   Enforcing the redirect before HTTPS is reachable can break access for clients that only know the HTTP URL.

4. Test the Nginx configuration for syntax errors.

   $ sudo nginx -t
   nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
   nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful

5. Reload Nginx to apply the change.

   $ sudo systemctl reload nginx

   On systems without systemd, reload with sudo nginx -s reload.

6. Verify the redirect by checking the Location header on an HTTP request.

   $ curl -I http://example.com/account/login?next=%2Fdashboard
   HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
   Server: nginx
   Date: Sun, 14 Dec 2025 12:35:20 GMT
   Content-Type: text/html
   Content-Length: 169
   Connection: keep-alive
   Location: https://example.com/account/login?next=%2Fdashboard
   ##### snipped #####