diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 5268bc1..a643476 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -310,6 +310,8 @@ path under `/v1/` answers 200, in maintenance mode too.
     - 403 when the upstream host, or a host it redirects to, has an address in a
       blocked network (see `blocked_networks`).
     - 429 over `image_requests_per_minute` (below).
+    - 499, with no body, when the client goes away before its image is ready,
+      unless its request is the one making the image (below).
     - 415 when the upstream answers with a `Content-Type` that is not one of the
       source formats (below).
     - 415 when the upstream sends a body whose first bytes are not those of the
@@ -341,6 +343,7 @@ path under `/v1/` answers 200, in maintenance mode too.
         - 403
         - 415
         - 429
+        - 499, with no body
         - 502
         - 503
         - 504
diff --git a/TODO.md b/TODO.md
index 92228e4..f00e81f 100644
--- a/TODO.md
+++ b/TODO.md
@@ -30,6 +30,17 @@ P2: security: per-origin rate limiting
 
 # Completed Steps
 
+- 2026-10-26 on both image routes, a request is answered 499 and logged at info
+  level when its client goes away before its image is ready, unless it is the
+  request making the image (closes #339). It was answered 500 and logged at
+  error level, as pixa's own failure.
+    - The line is "client went away before the image was ready". It carries the
+      `request_id`, the host and the path.
+    - The 499 has no body, since nobody reads it.
+    - `serveImage` answers it before calling `respondImageError`, which cannot
+      see the request's context.
+    - An error wrapping `context.Canceled` while the request's context is live
+      is still answered 500 and logged at error level.
 - 2026-10-26 `README.md`'s Design section starts with a Concepts list (closes
   #321). Each concept gets one sentence, under the name the code gives it.
     - Storage calls the transformed images variants, in shorter sentences.
diff --git a/internal/handlers/image.go b/internal/handlers/image.go
index 68c2fee..ff11b6e 100644
--- a/internal/handlers/image.go
+++ b/internal/handlers/image.go
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 package handlers
 
 import (
+	"context"
 	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
@@ -19,6 +20,12 @@ import (
 	"sneak.berlin/go/pixa/internal/magic"
 )
 
+// statusClientClosedRequest is the status nginx calls "client closed
+// request". The image routes answer it when the client goes away before its
+// image is ready, unless its request is the one making the image. Nobody reads
+// it; it is for logs and metrics.
+const statusClientClosedRequest = 499
+
 // HandleImage handles the main image proxy route:
 // /v1/image/<host>/<path>/<width>x<height>.<format>, or with no format
 // /v1/image/<host>/<path>/<width>x<height>
@@ -345,7 +352,8 @@ func notModified(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request, etag string) bool {
 // serveImage serves the image that req asks for. Both image routes call it
 // once they have the request and its URL's expiry, which ends the
 // Cache-Control max-age. It chooses the format for the format auto, answers
-// If-None-Match with 304 and HEAD with the headers only, and answers an error
+// If-None-Match with 304 and HEAD with the headers only. It answers 499 when
+// the image service stopped because the client went away, and any other error
 // of the image service with respondImageError.
 func (s *Handlers) serveImage(
 	w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request,
@@ -362,6 +370,21 @@ func (s *Handlers) serveImage(
 	startTime := time.Now()
 
 	resp, err := s.imgSvc.Get(r.Context(), req)
+
+	// The client went away before its image was ready, which is not pixa's
+	// failure. A cancellation while the request's context is live is pixa's,
+	// and respondImageError answers it 500.
+	if errors.Is(err, context.Canceled) && r.Context().Err() != nil {
+		s.log.Info("client went away before the image was ready",
+			"request_id", middleware.GetReqID(r.Context()),
+			"host", req.Source.Host,
+			"path", req.Source.Path,
+		)
+		w.WriteHeader(statusClientClosedRequest)
+
+		return
+	}
+
 	if err != nil {
 		s.respondImageError(w, req, err)