diff --git a/web3_proxy/src/app/mod.rs b/web3_proxy/src/app/mod.rs
index ffc38a0b..298e4c1d 100644
--- a/web3_proxy/src/app/mod.rs
+++ b/web3_proxy/src/app/mod.rs
@@ -1161,6 +1161,8 @@ impl Web3ProxyApp {
 
         // TODO: trace/kafka log request.params before we send them to _proxy_request_with_caching which might modify them
 
+        // turn some of the Web3ProxyErrors into Ok results
+        // TODO: move this into a helper function
         let (code, response_data) = match self
             ._proxy_request_with_caching(
                 &request.method,
@@ -1178,6 +1180,20 @@ impl Web3ProxyApp {
 
                 (StatusCode::OK, response_data)
             }
+            Err(err @ Web3ProxyError::NullJsonRpcResult) => {
+                request_metadata
+                    .error_response
+                    .store(false, Ordering::Release);
+
+                err.as_response_parts()
+            }
+            Err(Web3ProxyError::JsonRpcResponse(response_data)) => {
+                request_metadata
+                    .error_response
+                    .store(response_data.is_error(), Ordering::Release);
+
+                (StatusCode::OK, response_data)
+            }
             Err(err) => {
                 request_metadata
                     .error_response
@@ -1706,11 +1722,15 @@ impl Web3ProxyApp {
                     let to_block_num = cache_key.to_block_num().copied();
                     let cache_jsonrpc_errors = cache_key.cache_errors();
 
+                    // don't cache anything larger than 2 MiB
+                    let max_response_cache_bytes = 2 * (1024 ^ 2);  // self.config.max_response_cache_bytes;
+
                     // TODO: try to fetch out of s3
 
                     self
                         .jsonrpc_response_cache
                         .try_get_with::<_, Web3ProxyError>(cache_key.hash(), async {
+                            // TODO: think more about this timeout and test that it works well!
                             let response_data = timeout(
                                 backend_request_timetout + Duration::from_millis(100),
                                 self.balanced_rpcs
@@ -1737,6 +1757,9 @@ impl Web3ProxyApp {
                                 if response_data.is_null() {
                                     // don't ever cache "null" as a success. its too likely to be a problem
                                     Err(Web3ProxyError::NullJsonRpcResult)
+                                } else if response_data.num_bytes() > max_response_cache_bytes {
+                                    // don't cache really large requests
+                                    Err(Web3ProxyError::JsonRpcResponse(response_data))
                                 } else {
                                     // TODO: response data should maybe be Arc<JsonRpcResponseEnum<Box<RawValue>>>, but that's more work
                                     Ok(response_data)
diff --git a/web3_proxy/src/errors.rs b/web3_proxy/src/errors.rs
index fa899fe0..cc458215 100644
--- a/web3_proxy/src/errors.rs
+++ b/web3_proxy/src/errors.rs
@@ -23,7 +23,6 @@ use redis_rate_limiter::redis::RedisError;
 use redis_rate_limiter::RedisPoolError;
 use reqwest::header::ToStrError;
 use rust_decimal::Error as DecimalError;
-use serde::Serialize;
 use serde_json::json;
 use serde_json::value::RawValue;
 use siwe::VerificationError;
@@ -124,6 +123,10 @@ pub enum Web3ProxyError {
     #[from(ignore)]
     NotImplemented(Cow<'static, str>),
     NoVolatileRedisDatabase,
+    /// make it easy to skip caching large results
+    #[error(ignore)]
+    #[display(fmt = "{:?}", _0)]
+    JsonRpcResponse(JsonRpcResponseEnum<Arc<RawValue>>),
     /// make it easy to skip caching null results
     NullJsonRpcResult,
     OriginRequired,
@@ -181,7 +184,7 @@ pub enum Web3ProxyError {
 impl Web3ProxyError {
     /// turn the error into an axum response.
     /// <https://www.jsonrpc.org/specification#error_object>
-    pub fn as_response_parts<R: Serialize>(&self) -> (StatusCode, JsonRpcResponseEnum<R>) {
+    pub fn as_response_parts(&self) -> (StatusCode, JsonRpcResponseEnum<Arc<RawValue>>) {
         // TODO: include a unique request id in the data
         let (code, err): (StatusCode, JsonRpcErrorData) = match self {
             Self::Abi(err) => {
@@ -761,6 +764,10 @@ impl Web3ProxyError {
                     },
                 )
             }
+            Self::JsonRpcResponse(response_enum) => {
+                // TODO: shame we have to clone, but its an Arc so its not terrible
+                return (StatusCode::OK, response_enum.clone());
+            }
             Self::NullJsonRpcResult => {
                 return (StatusCode::OK, JsonRpcResponseEnum::NullResult);
             }
diff --git a/web3_proxy/src/frontend/authorization.rs b/web3_proxy/src/frontend/authorization.rs
index 3b6c123b..968d2ced 100644
--- a/web3_proxy/src/frontend/authorization.rs
+++ b/web3_proxy/src/frontend/authorization.rs
@@ -464,7 +464,7 @@ impl ResponseOrBytes<'_> {
                 .len(),
             Self::Bytes(num_bytes) => *num_bytes,
             Self::Error(x) => {
-                let (_, x) = x.as_response_parts::<()>();
+                let (_, x) = x.as_response_parts();
 
                 x.num_bytes() as usize
             }
@@ -579,6 +579,8 @@ impl RequestMetadata {
         self.response_timestamp
             .store(Utc::now().timestamp(), atomic::Ordering::Release);
 
+        // TODO: set user_error_response and error_response here instead of outside this function
+
         if let Some(kafka_debug_logger) = self.kafka_debug_logger.as_ref() {
             if let ResponseOrBytes::Response(response) = response {
                 kafka_debug_logger.log_debug_response(response);
diff --git a/web3_proxy/src/response_cache.rs b/web3_proxy/src/response_cache.rs
index 03409230..6e018d5a 100644
--- a/web3_proxy/src/response_cache.rs
+++ b/web3_proxy/src/response_cache.rs
@@ -109,6 +109,14 @@ impl<R> JsonRpcResponseEnum<R> {
             Self::RpcError { num_bytes, .. } => *num_bytes,
         }
     }
+
+    pub fn is_error(&self) -> bool {
+        match self {
+            Self::NullResult => false,
+            Self::Result { .. } => false,
+            Self::RpcError { .. } => true,
+        }
+    }
 }
 
 impl<R> JsonRpcResponseEnum<Option<R>> {
@@ -157,19 +165,25 @@ impl From<Box<RawValue>> for JsonRpcResponseEnum<Arc<RawValue>> {
     }
 }
 
-impl<R> TryFrom<Web3ProxyError> for JsonRpcResponseEnum<R> {
+impl TryFrom<Web3ProxyError> for JsonRpcResponseEnum<Arc<RawValue>> {
     type Error = Web3ProxyError;
 
     fn try_from(value: Web3ProxyError) -> Result<Self, Self::Error> {
-        if let Web3ProxyError::EthersProvider(ref err) = value {
-            if let Ok(x) = JsonRpcErrorData::try_from(err) {
-                let x = x.into();
+        match value {
+            Web3ProxyError::EthersProvider(err) => {
+                if let Ok(x) = JsonRpcErrorData::try_from(&err) {
+                    let x = x.into();
 
-                return Ok(x);
+                    Ok(x)
+                } else {
+                    Err(err.into())
+                }
             }
+            Web3ProxyError::NullJsonRpcResult => Ok(JsonRpcResponseEnum::NullResult),
+            Web3ProxyError::JsonRpcResponse(x) => Ok(x),
+            Web3ProxyError::JsonRpcErrorData(err) => Ok(err.into()),
+            err => Err(err),
         }
-
-        Err(value)
     }
 }