diff --git a/.changeset/pretty-dodos-end.md b/.changeset/pretty-dodos-end.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c997ba36e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/pretty-dodos-end.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+"@opennextjs/aws": patch
+---
+
+set the correct 500 status code on internal server error
diff --git a/packages/open-next/src/core/requestHandler.ts b/packages/open-next/src/core/requestHandler.ts
index 43067e812..3ee1fc89e 100644
--- a/packages/open-next/src/core/requestHandler.ts
+++ b/packages/open-next/src/core/requestHandler.ts
@@ -345,6 +345,7 @@ async function tryRenderError(
     await requestHandler(requestMetadata)(_req, res);
   } catch (e) {
     error("NextJS request failed.", e);
+    res.statusCode = 500;
     res.setHeader("Content-Type", "application/json");
     res.end(
       JSON.stringify(