---
title: "Why am I seeing \"waiting on server\" on query traces?"
canonical: "https://support.apollographql.com/space/ETKB/648216618/Why%20am%20I%20seeing%20%22waiting%20on%20server%22%20on%20query%20traces%3F"
format: markdown
---
When viewing a query trace in Apollo Studio, you might see "waiting on server" as part of the timeline.

This indicates that the gateway is waiting for a blocking process on a subgraph server to complete before it can begin fulfilling the query.


![waiting-on-server.png](media://8f82072a-1154-487a-9aa4-7c40db8453a8)


In these scenarios, we recommend referring to the best practices for increasing the performance of your server's specific language or framework.

For example, Apollo Server runs on Node.js, a single-threaded system. If a blocking middleware slows things down _before_ a server starts handling a GraphQL request, that will affect the wait time in the trace.

Regardless of your framework, we recommend limiting your server's required pre-processing before handling a GraphQL request.