508 Loop Detected (RFC 5842, WebDAV bindings) means the server terminated an operation because it found an infinite loop while processing a request with Depth: infinity. With WebDAV bindings a collection can contain itself, directly or indirectly, so a recursive operation could run forever. It is the alternative to reporting repeated members with 208 Already Reported.
Despite its name, 508 has nothing to do with redirect loops, which show up as a sequence of repeating 3xx responses. On shared hosting you may also see "508 Resource Limit Is Reached", a non-standard use of the code by some hosting software when an account exceeds its process, CPU or memory limits.
Example response
HTTP/1.1 508 Loop Detected
Date: Fri, 06 Nov 2026 10:15:32 GMT
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Length: 68
Binding loop detected while processing PROPFIND with Depth: infinitySEO and redirect checking
The WebDAV meaning has no SEO relevance, but the hosting variant does: if pages return 508 because of resource limits, crawlers treat it as a server error, slow down and may drop pages. Raise the limits or reduce the load. To find real redirect loops, use the Redirect Loop Checker.
Common causes and use cases
- A WebDAV collection contains a binding to itself or to one of its parents.
- Shared hosting resource limits (entry processes, CPU, memory) were reached, and the host answers with 508.
- A recursive
PROPFIND,COPYorMOVEruns into a bind loop.