Expert-Approved Cheat Sheet for HTTP Status Codes

What are HTTP status codes?

An HTTP status code is a server response to a browser’s request. When you visit a website, your browser sends a request to the site’s server, and the server then responds to the browser’s request with a three-digit code: the HTTP status code.

These status codes are the Internet equivalent of a conversation between your browser and the server. They communicate whether things between the two are A-okay, touch-and-go, or whether something is wrong. The first digit of each three-digit status code begins with one of five numbers, 1 through 5; you may see this expressed as 1xx or 5xx to indicate status codes in that range. Each of those ranges encompasses a different class of server response.

Common HTTP status code classes:

• 1xxs – Informational responses: The server is thinking through the request.
• 2xxs – Success! The request was successfully completed and the server gave the browser the expected response.
• 3xxs – Redirection: You got redirected somewhere else. The request was received, but there’s a redirect of some kind.
• 4xxs – Client errors: Page not found. The site or page couldn’t be reached. (The request was made, but the page isn’t valid — this is an error on the website’s side of the conversation and often appears when a page doesn’t exist on the site.)
• 5xxs – Server errors: Failure. A valid request was made by the client but the server failed to complete the request.

1xx: HTTP Inform­ational Codes

2xx: HTTP Successful Codes

3xx: HTTP Redire­ction Codes

307 and 308 are similar to 302 and 301, but the new request method after redirect must be the same, as on the initial request.

4xx: HTTP Client Error Code

5xx: HTTP Server Error Codes

HTTP Code Comments

Wikipedia was used to produce all HTTP status codes content: http:/­/en.wi­kip­edi­a.o­rg/­wik­i/H­TTP­_status