ECONNREFUSED in Node.js — What It Means and How to Fix It
What the Node.js/npm error ECONNREFUSED means and how to resolve it.
Published October 25, 2026
ECONNREFUSED means a connection attempt was actively rejected, usually because nothing is listening on the target host/port.
Key points
- Common when an app tries to connect to a database or API before that service has actually started
- Verify the target service is running and listening on the expected host and port