Why do my webhooks from the transcription service keep timing out?

Webhook timeouts usually mean the transcription service is trying to POST to your callback URL, but your endpoint isn’t responding fast enough or isn’t reachable reliably.

Common causes:

• Your endpoint takes too long to process
  Webhooks should usually return a 2xx quickly. If you do heavy work before responding, the sender may time out.

• Your server is unreachable from the public internet
  Common with local dev servers, private networks, VPN-only endpoints, or bad DNS/TLS setup.

• Your app returns errors or hangs
  Crashes, deadlocks, missing route handlers, or waiting on downstream services can prevent a timely response.

• SSL/TLS or certificate issues
  Invalid certificates, redirects, or handshake problems can cause webhook delivery failures.

• Firewall / WAF / rate limiting
  Security tools may block the service’s requests or delay them.

• Wrong URL or redirect chain
  The webhook URL may point to a path that redirects multiple times or doesn’t match the expected method.

• Large body parsing or slow middleware
  Some frameworks buffer/parse the request before your handler runs, which can add latency.

What to do:

1. Log inbound webhook requests and response times.
2. Return 200 OK immediately and offload processing to a background job/queue.
3. Verify the endpoint is publicly reachable and not behind auth unless the service supports it.
4. Check TLS and DNS.
5. Inspect provider delivery logs for status codes and latency.
6. Test with a simple endpoint that just returns 200 instantly.

If you want, I can help you troubleshoot it systematically if you share:

• the webhook URL pattern (redacted is fine),
• your stack/framework,
• the timeout/error message from the transcription service,
• and what your webhook handler does before responding.