Questions & Answers

Here's a SSCCE using NodeJS which will timeout after 1000ms:

import fetch from 'node-fetch';

const controller = new AbortController();
const timeout = setTimeout(() => {
    controller.abort();
}, 1000); // will time out after 1000ms

fetch('https://www.yourexample.com', {
    signal: controller.signal,
    method: 'POST',
    body: formData,
    credentials: 'include'
}
)
.then(response => response.json())
.then(json => console.log(json))
.catch(err => {
    if(err.name === 'AbortError') {
        console.log('Timed out');
    }}
)
.finally( () => {
    clearTimeout(timeout);
});

Building on Endless' excellent answer, I created a helpful utility function.

const fetchTimeout = (url, ms, { signal, ...options } = {}) => {
    const controller = new AbortController();
    const promise = fetch(url, { signal: controller.signal, ...options });
    if (signal) signal.addEventListener("abort", () => controller.abort());
    const timeout = setTimeout(() => controller.abort(), ms);
    return promise.finally(() => clearTimeout(timeout));
};

1. If the timeout is reached before the resource is fetched then the fetch is aborted.
2. If the resource is fetched before the timeout is reached then the timeout is cleared.
3. If the input signal is aborted then the fetch is aborted and the timeout is cleared.

const controller = new AbortController();

document.querySelector("button.cancel").addEventListener("click", () => controller.abort());

fetchTimeout("example.json", 5000, { signal: controller.signal })
    .then(response => response.json())
    .then(console.log)
    .catch(error => {
        if (error.name === "AbortError") {
            // fetch aborted either due to timeout or due to user clicking the cancel button
        } else {
            // network error or json parsing error
        }
    });

Using a promise race solution will leave the request hanging and still consume bandwidth in the background and lower the max allowed concurrent request being made while it's still in process.

Instead use the AbortController to actually abort the request, Here is an example

const controller = new AbortController()

// 5 second timeout:

const timeoutId = setTimeout(() => controller.abort(), 5000)

fetch(url, { signal: controller.signal }).then(response => {
  // completed request before timeout fired

  // If you only wanted to timeout the request, not the response, add:
  // clearTimeout(timeoutId)
})

Alternative you can use the newly added AbortSignal.timeout(5000)... but it is not well implemented in most browser right now. All green env have this now. You will lose control over manually closing the request. Both upload and download will have to finish within a total time of 5s

// a polyfill for it would be:
AbortSignal.timeout ??= function timeout(ms) {
  const ctrl = new AbortController()
  setTimeout(() => ctrl.close(), ms)
  return ctrl.signal
}


fetch(url, { signal: AbortSignal.timeout(5000) })

^{AbortController can be used for other things as well, not only fetch but for readable/writable streams as well. More newer functions (specially promise based ones) will use this more and more. NodeJS have also implemented AbortController into its streams/filesystem as well. I know web bluetooth are looking into it also. Now it can also be used with addEventListener option and have it stop listening when the signal ends}

Update since my original answer is a bit outdated I recommend using abort controller like implemented here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/57888548/1059828 or take a look at this really good post explaining abort controller with fetch: How do I cancel an HTTP fetch() request?

outdated original answer:

I really like the clean approach from this gist using Promise.race

fetchWithTimeout.js

export default function (url, options, timeout = 7000) {
    return Promise.race([
        fetch(url, options),
        new Promise((_, reject) =>
            setTimeout(() => reject(new Error('timeout')), timeout)
        )
    ]);
}

main.js

import fetch from './fetchWithTimeout'

// call as usual or with timeout as 3rd argument

// throw after max 5 seconds timeout error
fetch('http://google.com', options, 5000) 
.then((result) => {
    // handle result
})
.catch((e) => {
    // handle errors and timeout error
})

there's no timeout support in the fetch API yet. But it could be achieved by wrapping it in a promise.

for eg.

  function fetchWrapper(url, options, timeout) {
    return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
      fetch(url, options).then(resolve, reject);

      if (timeout) {
        const e = new Error("Connection timed out");
        setTimeout(reject, timeout, e);
      }
    });
  }

If you haven't configured timeout in your code, It will be the default request timeout of your browser.

1) Firefox - 90 seconds

Type about:config in Firefox URL field. Find the value corresponding to key network.http.connection-timeout

2) Chrome - 300 seconds

Source

A more clean way to do it is actually in MDN: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/AbortSignal#aborting_a_fetch_operation_with_a_timeout

try {
    await fetch(url, { signal: AbortSignal.timeout(5000) });
} catch (e) {
    if (e.name === "TimeoutError") {
        console.log('5000 ms timeout');
    }
}

Edit 1

As pointed out in comments, the code in the original answer keeps running the timer even after the promise is resolved/rejected.

The code below fixes that issue.

function timeout(ms, promise) {
  return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
    const timer = setTimeout(() => {
      reject(new Error('TIMEOUT'))
    }, ms)

    promise
      .then(value => {
        clearTimeout(timer)
        resolve(value)
      })
      .catch(reason => {
        clearTimeout(timer)
        reject(reason)
      })
  })
}

Original answer

It doesn't have a specified default; the specification doesn't discuss timeouts at all.

You can implement your own timeout wrapper for promises in general:

// Rough implementation. Untested.
function timeout(ms, promise) {
  return new Promise(function(resolve, reject) {
    setTimeout(function() {
      reject(new Error("timeout"))
    }, ms)
    promise.then(resolve, reject)
  })
}

timeout(1000, fetch('/hello')).then(function(response) {
  // process response
}).catch(function(error) {
  // might be a timeout error
})

As described in https://github.com/github/fetch/issues/175 Comment by https://github.com/mislav

  fetchTimeout (url,options,timeout=3000) {
    return new Promise( (resolve, reject) => {
      fetch(url, options)
      .then(resolve,reject)
      setTimeout(reject,timeout);
    })
  }

EDIT: The fetch request will still be running in the background and will most likely log an error in your console.

Indeed the Promise.race approach is better.

See this link for reference Promise.race()

Race means that all Promises will run at the same time, and the race will stop as soon as one of the promises returns a value. Therefore, only one value will be returned. You could also pass a function to call if the fetch times out.

fetchWithTimeout(url, {
  method: 'POST',
  body: formData,
  credentials: 'include',
}, 5000, () => { /* do stuff here */ });

If this piques your interest, a possible implementation would be :

function fetchWithTimeout(url, options, delay, onTimeout) {
  const timer = new Promise((resolve) => {
    setTimeout(resolve, delay, {
      timeout: true,
    });
  });
  return Promise.race([
    fetch(url, options),
    timer
  ]).then(response => {
    if (response.timeout) {
      onTimeout();
    }
    return response;
  });
}

You can create a timeoutPromise wrapper

function timeoutPromise(timeout, err, promise) {
  return new Promise(function(resolve,reject) {
    promise.then(resolve,reject);
    setTimeout(reject.bind(null,err), timeout);
  });
}

You can then wrap any promise

timeoutPromise(100, new Error('Timed Out!'), fetch(...))
  .then(...)
  .catch(...)  

It won't actually cancel an underlying connection but will allow you to timeout a promise.
Reference

Proper error handling tips

Normal practice:

To add timeout support most of the time it is suggested to introduce a Promise utility function like this:

function fetchWithTimeout(resource, { signal, timeout, ...options } = {}) {
  const controller = new AbortController();
  if (signal != null) signal.addEventListener("abort", controller.abort);
  const id = timeout != null ? setTimeout(controller.abort, timeout) : undefined;
  return fetch(resource, {
    ...options,
    signal: controller.signal
  }).finally(() => {
    if (id != null) clearTimeout(id);
  });
}

Calling controller.abort or rejecting the promise inside the setTimeout callback function distorts the stack trace.

This is suboptimal, since one would have to add boilerplate error handlers with log messages in the functions calling the fetch method if post-error log analysis is required.

Good expertise:

To preserve the error along with it's stack trace one can apply the following technique:

function sleep(ms = 0) {
  return new Promise((resolve) => {
    setTimeout(() => resolve(), ms);
  });
}

async function fetchWithTimeout(
  resource,
  { signal, timeout, ...options } = {}
) {
  const controller = new AbortController();
  if (signal != null) signal.addEventListener("abort", controller.abort);
  const request = fetch(
    resource,
    { ...options, signal: controller.signal }
  );
  if (timeout != null) {
    const aborter = sleep(timeout);
    const race = await Promise.race([aborter, request]);
    if (race == null) controller.abort();
  }
  return request;
}

(async () => {
  try {
    await fetchWithTimeout(new URL(window.location.href), { timeout: 5 });
  } catch (error) {
    console.error("Error in test", error);
  }
})();

Using c-promise2 lib the cancellable fetch with timeout might look like this one (Live jsfiddle demo):

import CPromise from "c-promise2"; // npm package

function fetchWithTimeout(url, {timeout, ...fetchOptions}= {}) {
    return new CPromise((resolve, reject, {signal}) => {
        fetch(url, {...fetchOptions, signal}).then(resolve, reject)
    }, timeout)
}
        
const chain = fetchWithTimeout("https://run.mocky.io/v3/753aa609-65ae-4109-8f83-9cfe365290f0?mocky-delay=10s", {timeout: 5000})
    .then(request=> console.log('done'));
    
// chain.cancel(); - to abort the request before the timeout

This code as a npm package cp-fetch

Using AbortController and setTimeout;

const abortController = new AbortController();

let timer: number | null = null;

fetch('/get', {
    signal: abortController.signal, // Content to abortController
})
    .then(res => {
        // response success
        console.log(res);

        if (timer) {
            clearTimeout(timer); // clear timer
        }
    })
    .catch(err => {
        if (err instanceof DOMException && err.name === 'AbortError') {
            // will return a DOMException
            return;
        }

        // other errors
    });

timer = setTimeout(() => {
    abortController.abort();
}, 1000 * 10); // Abort request in 10s.

This is a fragment in @fatcherjs/middleware-aborter.

By using fatcher, it can easy to abort a fetch request.

import { aborter } from '@fatcherjs/middleware-aborter';
import { fatcher, isAbortError } from 'fatcher';

fatcher({
    url: '/bar/foo',
    middlewares: [
        aborter({
            timeout: 10 * 1000, // 10s
            onAbort: () => {
                console.log('Request is Aborted.');
            },
        }),
    ],
})
    .then(res => {
        // Request success in 10s
        console.log(res);
    })
    .catch(err => {
        if (isAbortError(err)) {
            //Run error when request aborted.
            console.error(err);
        }

        // Other errors.
    });