Nginx Caching Configuration

Nginx proxy caching can absorb traffic spikes by serving responses from disk without hitting your backend. Configure cache zones, TTLs, and bypass conditions with our generator.

A proxy cache zone

Declare the zone in http, then enable it per location with a TTL per status code.

proxy_cache_path /var/cache/nginx keys_zone=app:10m max_size=1g inactive=60m;
location / {
    proxy_cache app;
    proxy_cache_valid 200 10m;
    proxy_cache_use_stale error timeout updating;
    add_header X-Cache-Status $upstream_cache_status;
}

Do not cache personalised responses

Skip the cache for requests with cookies or authorization headers using proxy_cache_bypass and proxy_no_cache, or you can serve one user’s page to another.

Open the Static site generator

Frequently asked questions

How do I see whether a response was cached?

Expose $upstream_cache_status as a response header and look for HIT, MISS or EXPIRED.

What is the difference between proxy_cache and fastcgi_cache?

Same mechanism; proxy_cache stores upstream HTTP responses, fastcgi_cache stores PHP-FPM responses.

Guides

• Nginx Reverse Proxy Configuration
• Caddy Reverse Proxy Configuration
• Nginx Static Site Configuration
• Caddy Static Site Configuration
• Nginx + PHP-FPM Configuration
• Caddy + PHP-FPM Configuration
• Nginx SSL/TLS Configuration
• Nginx Load Balancer Configuration
• Caddy Load Balancer Configuration
• Nginx Rate Limiting Configuration
• Nginx Security Headers Configuration
• Caddy Security Headers Configuration
• Nginx Gzip Compression Configuration
• Nginx Caching Configuration
• Caddy HTTPS Redirect Configuration
• Nginx WebSocket Proxy Configuration
• Nginx Content-Security-Policy Header
• Block Bad Bots and Scanners in Nginx
• fail2ban for Nginx
• nginx.conf Best Practices
• Nginx Location Regex Tester
• Deploy Nginx Config with GitHub Actions
• Nginx CORS Headers Configuration
• Nginx Cache-Control Headers Configuration
• Nginx 301 Redirect Map Configuration
• robots.txt, Sitemap and security.txt
• Apache .htaccess Configuration
• Docker Compose and Dockerfile Configuration
• systemd Service and Timer Configuration
• Cron Expression Explainer
• SSH Hardening with sshd_config
• Linux Firewall Rules: ufw, nftables and iptables
• Glob Pattern Tester
• Analysing Nginx Access Logs with awk
• Subnet Mask and CIDR Calculator
• VLAN Configuration on Linux
• Static Routes and Policy Routing on Linux
• NAT and Port Forwarding with nftables
• DHCP Server Configuration
• BIND Zone File Example
• WireGuard Server and Client Configuration
• A Simple IP Plan for Your Home Network