diff --git a/examples/server/utils.hpp b/examples/server/utils.hpp
index fefdce55b..5f97df5fd 100644
--- a/examples/server/utils.hpp
+++ b/examples/server/utils.hpp
@@ -5,10 +5,6 @@
 #include "llama.h"
 #include "common/base64.hpp"
 
-#ifndef NDEBUG
-// crash the server in debug mode, otherwise send an http 500 error
-#define CPPHTTPLIB_NO_EXCEPTIONS 1
-#endif
 // increase max payload length to allow use of larger context size
 #define CPPHTTPLIB_FORM_URL_ENCODED_PAYLOAD_MAX_LENGTH 1048576
 #include "httplib.h"