diff --git a/nginx-mempool.conf b/nginx-mempool.conf
index 67cb15939..bc8efc59e 100644
--- a/nginx-mempool.conf
+++ b/nginx-mempool.conf
@@ -39,6 +39,11 @@
 		try_files $uri $uri/ /$1/index.html =404;
 	}
 
+	# any path containing .*/internal-api/.* anywhere is ignored
+	location ~ ^/.*?/internal-api/ {
+		return 404;
+	}
+
 	# static API docs
 	location = /api {
 		try_files $uri $uri/ /en-US/index.html =404;
diff --git a/production/nginx/location-api.conf b/production/nginx/location-api.conf
index 2b2b85411..dba798719 100644
--- a/production/nginx/location-api.conf
+++ b/production/nginx/location-api.conf
@@ -2,6 +2,11 @@
 # mempool #
 ###########
 
+# any path containing .*/internal-api/.* anywhere is ignored
+location ~ ^/.*?/internal-api/ {
+	return 404;
+}
+
 # websocket has special HTTP headers
 location /api/v1/ws {
 	try_files /dev/null @mempool-api-v1-websocket;