diff --git a/zerver/middleware.py b/zerver/middleware.py
index 3c6a326a1f..9cfd47c569 100644
--- a/zerver/middleware.py
+++ b/zerver/middleware.py
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ from zerver.lib.cache import get_memcached_time, get_memcached_requests
 from zerver.lib.bugdown import get_bugdown_time, get_bugdown_requests
 from zerver.models import flush_per_request_caches
 from zerver.exceptions import RateLimited
+from django.views.csrf import csrf_failure as html_csrf_failure
 
 import logging
 import time
@@ -219,6 +220,21 @@ class JsonErrorHandler(object):
             return json_error(exception.to_json_error_msg())
         return None
 
+class TagRequests(object):
+    def process_view(self, request, view_func, args, kwargs):
+        self.process_request(request)
+    def process_request(self, request):
+        if request.path.startswith("/api/") or request.path.startswith("/json/"):
+            request.error_format = "JSON"
+        else:
+            request.error_format = "HTML"
+
+def csrf_failure(request, reason=""):
+    if request.error_format == "JSON":
+        return json_error("CSRF Error: %s" % (reason,), status=403)
+    else:
+        return html_csrf_failure(request, reason)
+
 # Monkeypatch in time tracking to the Django non-debug cursor
 # Code comes from CursorDebugWrapper
 def wrapper_execute(self, action, sql, params=()):
diff --git a/zproject/settings.py b/zproject/settings.py
index 92379b5fd6..2aa849057e 100644
--- a/zproject/settings.py
+++ b/zproject/settings.py
@@ -131,6 +131,7 @@ if DEPLOYED:
 # the token from the DOM, which means malicious code could too.  But hiding the
 # cookie will slow down some attackers.
 CSRF_COOKIE_PATH = '/;HttpOnly'
+CSRF_FAILURE_VIEW = 'zerver.middleware.csrf_failure'
 
 # Base URL of the Tornado server
 # We set it to None when running backend tests or populate_db.
@@ -154,6 +155,7 @@ if DEPLOYED:
 
 MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES = (
     # Our logging middleware should be the first middleware item.
+    'zerver.middleware.TagRequests',
     'zerver.middleware.LogRequests',
     'zerver.middleware.JsonErrorHandler',
     'zerver.middleware.RateLimitMiddleware',