EADDRINUSE in Node.js — What It Means and How to Fix It
What the Node.js/npm error EADDRINUSE means and how to resolve it.
Published October 24, 2026
EADDRINUSE means the port a server is trying to listen on is already in use by another process.
Key points
- Find and stop the process using that port, or configure the app to use a different one
- Common when a previous instance of the same dev server didn't shut down cleanly