diff --git a/changes/15430-change-script-timeout-error-code-to-408 b/changes/15430-change-script-timeout-error-code-to-408
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..87509228e8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changes/15430-change-script-timeout-error-code-to-408
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+- POST /api/v1/fleet/scripts/run/sync timeout (longer than 60 seconds) will now return error code: 408 instead of 504
diff --git a/server/service/scripts.go b/server/service/scripts.go
index e25e31c64a..0732f785c8 100644
--- a/server/service/scripts.go
+++ b/server/service/scripts.go
@@ -64,7 +64,11 @@ type runScriptSyncResponse struct {
 func (r runScriptSyncResponse) error() error { return r.Err }
 func (r runScriptSyncResponse) Status() int {
 	if r.HostTimeout {
-		return http.StatusGatewayTimeout
+		// The more proper response for a timeout on the server would be: StatusGatewayTimeout = 504
+		// However, as described in https://github.com/fleetdm/fleet/issues/15430 we will send:
+		// StatusRequestTimeout = 408 // RFC 9110, 15.5.9
+		// See: https://github.com/fleetdm/fleet/issues/15430#issuecomment-1847345617
+		return http.StatusRequestTimeout
 	}
 	return http.StatusOK
 }