diff --git a/packages/playwright-core/src/server/fetch.ts b/packages/playwright-core/src/server/fetch.ts
index ed487e77d2..2a4a6caee5 100644
--- a/packages/playwright-core/src/server/fetch.ts
+++ b/packages/playwright-core/src/server/fetch.ts
@@ -214,8 +214,16 @@ export abstract class APIRequestContext extends SdkObject {
     });
     const fetchUid = this._storeResponseBody(fetchResponse.body);
     this.fetchLog.set(fetchUid, controller.metadata.log);
-    if (params.failOnStatusCode && (fetchResponse.status < 200 || fetchResponse.status >= 400))
-      throw new Error(`${fetchResponse.status} ${fetchResponse.statusText}`);
+    if (params.failOnStatusCode && (fetchResponse.status < 200 || fetchResponse.status >= 400)) {
+      let responseText = '';
+      if (fetchResponse.body.byteLength) {
+        let text = fetchResponse.body.toString('utf8');
+        if (text.length > 1000)
+          text = text.substring(0, 997) + '...';
+        responseText = `\nResponse text:\n${text}`;
+      }
+      throw new Error(`${fetchResponse.status} ${fetchResponse.statusText}${responseText}`);
+    }
     return { ...fetchResponse, fetchUid };
   }
 
diff --git a/tests/library/browsercontext-fetch.spec.ts b/tests/library/browsercontext-fetch.spec.ts
index bffb1b82f1..733596b481 100644
--- a/tests/library/browsercontext-fetch.spec.ts
+++ b/tests/library/browsercontext-fetch.spec.ts
@@ -145,6 +145,8 @@ for (const method of ['fetch', 'delete', 'get', 'head', 'patch', 'post', 'put']
       failOnStatusCode: true
     }).catch(e => e);
     expect(error.message).toContain('404 Not Found');
+    if (method !== 'head')
+      expect(error.message).toContain('Response text:\nFile not found:');
   });
 
   it(`${method}should support ignoreHTTPSErrors option`, async ({ context, httpsServer }) => {