5-Minute Guide: Deploy FastAPI to Production

A concise, copy-pasteable checklist for taking a FastAPI app from localhost to a secure, production-ready deployment.

1. Containerize the App

# Dockerfile
FROM python:3.11-slim AS base

WORKDIR /app
COPY pyproject.toml poetry.lock* ./
RUN pip install --no-cache-dir poetry && poetry install --no-root --only main

COPY . .

CMD ["poetry", "run", "uvicorn", "app.main:app", "--host", "0.0.0.0", "--port", "8000"]

Checklist:

• HEALTHCHECK route implemented (/health)
• app.state.model loaded once at startup
• No secrets in the image (use env vars)

2. Pick a Simple Host (DigitalOcean Example)

# Create droplet (UI or doctl)
ssh root@your-ip

# Install Docker
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh

# Start app
docker build -t fastapi-app .
docker run -d --name fastapi-app -p 8000:8000 --restart=always fastapi-app

You now have a public FastAPI instance at http://your-ip:8000.

3. Put Nginx in Front

apt-get update && apt-get install -y nginx

cat > /etc/nginx/sites-available/fastapi << 'EOF'
server {
  listen 80;
  server_name your-domain.com;

  location / {
    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8000;
    proxy_set_header Host $host;
    proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
  }
}
EOF

ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/fastapi /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/fastapi
nginx -t && systemctl restart nginx

Hit http://your-domain.com → Nginx → FastAPI.

4. Add HTTPS in 60 Seconds

apt-get install -y certbot python3-certbot-nginx
certbot --nginx -d your-domain.com --redirect --non-interactive \
  --agree-tos -m you@example.com

You now have HTTPS + automatic renewal.

5. Observability Essentials

• Log format: include request ID, path, status, latency
• Metrics: expose /metrics (Prometheus) or plug into a hosted solution

from fastapi import FastAPI, Request
import time

app = FastAPI()

@app.middleware("http")
async def log_requests(request: Request, call_next):
    start = time.perf_counter()
    response = await call_next(request)
    duration = (time.perf_counter() - start) * 1000
    app.logger.info(
        "method=%s path=%s status=%s duration_ms=%.1f",
        request.method,
        request.url.path,
        response.status_code,
        duration,
    )
    return response

6. Sanity Checklist Before Sleeping

• [ ] /health returns 200 and checks dependencies
• [ ] Uvicorn started with --workers (2–4 to start)
• [ ] Nginx proxies only to 127.0.0.1:8000
• [ ] HTTPS working, forced redirect from HTTP
• [ ] Logs visible on server (journalctl / docker logs)
• [ ] CPU/RAM usage under control at expected traffic

If you want a deeper, end-to-end example, see:

• FastAPI for ML Engineers: Serving Models with <100ms Latency

Or if you’d rather have someone set this up with you, reach out and we’ll design a deployment path tailored to your stack.