How to Stop a Process Running on Port 8000 in Laravel

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Port Address already in use

In this guide, we’ll show you step-by-step how to stop or free port 8000 on Mac or Linux systems. If you’ve ever tried running your Laravel development server: 

php artisan serve

and got this message:

Failed to listen on 127.0.0.1:8000 (reason: Address already in use)
INFO  Server running on [http://127.0.0.1:8001].

It means port 8000 is already in use — most likely by another Laravel instance or a process that didn’t close properly. This is one of the most common issues developers face when using php artisan serve.

For MacOS & Linux Users

Step 1: Check Which Process Is Using Port 8000

lsof -i :8000

Explanation:

  • lsof — lists open files and network connections.
  • -i :8000 — filters processes using port 8000.

You should see output similar to this: COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME php 5432 neon 3u IPv4 0x… 0t0 TCP 127.0.0.1:8000 (LISTEN)

Take note of the PID (Process ID).
In this example, the PID is 5432.

Step 2: Kill the Process Using the PID

Once you’ve identified the PID, stop the process with the following command: 

kill -9 5432

Replace 5432 with the actual PID from your terminal output.

⚠️ The -9 flag forces the process to stop immediately.

Now try running your Laravel server again: 

php artisan serve

It should now run correctly on: 

http://127.0.0.1:8000

For Windows Users

If you’re on Windows, the commands are a little different.

Step 1: Find the Process ID

netstat -ano | findstr :8000

Step 2: Kill the Process

taskkill /PID <PID> /F

Replace <PID> with the process ID you found.

Happy Codding!!!