diff --git a/Readme.md b/Readme.md
index b4a2520d982f2..b420f893643d4 100644
--- a/Readme.md
+++ b/Readme.md
@@ -139,6 +139,17 @@ Each top-level component receives a `url` property with the following API:
 - `pushTo(url)` - performs a `pushState` call that renders the new `url`. This is equivalent to following a `<Link>`
 - `replaceTo(url)` - performs a `replaceState` call that renders the new `url`
 
+### Error handling
+
+404 or 500 errors are handled both client and server side by a default component `error.js`. If you wish to override it, define a `_error.js`:
+
+```jsx
+import React from 'react'
+export default ({ statusCode }) => (
+  <p>An error { statusCode } occurred</p>
+)
+```
+
 ### Production deployment
 
 To deploy, run:
@@ -169,7 +180,6 @@ For example, to deploy with `now` a `package.json` like follows is recommended:
 The following tasks are planned and part of our roadmap
 
 - [ ] Add option to supply a `req`, `res` handling function for custom routing
-- [ ] Add option to supply a custom error component to render 404, 500 pages
 - [ ] Add option to extend or replace custom babel configuration
 - [ ] Add option to extend or replace custom webpack configuration
 - [ ] Investigate pluggable component-oriented rendering backends (Inferno, Preact, etc)
diff --git a/lib/router.js b/lib/router.js
index 6e8a95348fd5d..57e78be9428ad 100644
--- a/lib/router.js
+++ b/lib/router.js
@@ -149,7 +149,13 @@ export default class Router {
     const cancel = () => { cancelled = true }
     this.componentLoadCancel = cancel
 
-    const props = await (Component.getInitialProps ? Component.getInitialProps(ctx) : {})
+    let props = {}
+    const status = ctx.xhr.status
+    if (status === 404 || status === 500) {
+      props = { statusCode: ctx.xhr.status }
+    } else {
+      props = await (Component.getInitialProps ? Component.getInitialProps(ctx) : {})
+    }
 
     if (cancel === this.componentLoadCancel) {
       this.componentLoadCancel = null
diff --git a/server/build/index.js b/server/build/index.js
index 569fe63948797..1b29f9d0b769e 100644
--- a/server/build/index.js
+++ b/server/build/index.js
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ export default async function build (dir) {
   const templateDir = resolve(__dirname, '..', '..', 'lib', 'pages')
 
   // create `.next/pages/_error.js`
-  // which may be overwriten by the user sciprt, `pages/_error.js`
+  // which may be overwriten by the user script, `pages/_error.js`
   const templatPaths = await glob('**/*.js', { cwd: templateDir })
   await Promise.all(templatPaths.map(async (p) => {
     await transpile(resolve(templateDir, p), resolve(dstDir, 'pages', p))
diff --git a/server/render.js b/server/render.js
index 670fc5508ecb7..f7a020af14769 100644
--- a/server/render.js
+++ b/server/render.js
@@ -21,7 +21,8 @@ export async function render (url, ctx = {}, {
   const mod = require(p)
   const Component = mod.default || mod
 
-  const props = await (Component.getInitialProps ? Component.getInitialProps(ctx) : {})
+  const { err, res } = ctx
+  const props = ctx.err ? getErrorProps(ctx, dev) : await (Component.getInitialProps ? Component.getInitialProps(ctx) : {})
   const component = await read(resolve(dir, '.next', '_bundles', 'pages', path))
 
   const { html, css } = StyleSheetServer.renderStatic(() => {
@@ -62,3 +63,7 @@ export async function renderJSON (url, { dir = process.cwd() } = {}) {
 function getPath (url) {
   return parse(url || '/').pathname.slice(1).replace(/\.json$/, '')
 }
+
+function getErrorProps (ctx, dev) {
+  return { statusCode: ctx.res.statusCode, stacktrace: dev ? ctx.err.message : undefined }
+}