200 OK

The HTTP 200 OK status code indicates a successful request. The meaning of success and the accompanying message body vary based on the HTTP method used.

The response is cacheable by default. To override this behavior, the response needs to include the appropriate Cache-Control headers.

Table of Contents

Usage

A 200 OK response always includes a message body, though the server is free to set the body length to zero. Depending on the server, this is expected when processing a PUT, DELETE, or OPTIONS request.

When the server has no content to return, the 204 status code is more appropriate. For requests creating a new resource, such as a POST creating content, a 201 status code is returned instead.

SEO impact

A 200 response passes content to Google's indexing pipeline, but indexing is not guaranteed. Google evaluates the content and decides independently whether to include the page in search results. A 200 response on a page saying content is missing or gone creates a soft 404. Too many soft 404s erode Google's trust in the site's server signals and negatively affects rankings.

GET

A GET response contains the message body of the requested resource.

Request

GET /document.pdf HTTP/1.1
Host: www.example.re

Response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/pdf
Content-Length: 10000

<message body contains the requested PDF document>

A HEAD response contains the same headers as a GET response, with no message body.

Request

HEAD / HTTP/1.1
Host: www.example.re

Response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8

POST

A POST response typically contains information about the result of the action or progress status.

Request

POST /api/data HTTP/1.1
Host: www.example.re
Content-Type: application/json
Content-Length: 24

{"name":"example entry"}

Response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json
Content-Length: 18

{"success":"true"}

PUT

A PUT response typically contains information about the result of the action or progress status.

Request

PUT /api/data/1 HTTP/1.1
Host: www.example.re
Content-Type: application/json
Content-Length: 24

{"name":"updated entry"}

Response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json
Content-Length: 18

{"success":"true"}

TRACE

A TRACE response contains the request message as the server received the request.

Request

TRACE / HTTP/1.1
Host: www.example.re

Response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: message/http
Content-Length: 38

TRACE / HTTP/1.1
Host: www.example.re

DELETE

A DELETE response includes a status indication of the completed action.

Request

DELETE /api/data/1 HTTP/1.1
Host: www.example.re

Response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json
Content-Length: 18

{"deleted":"true"}

OPTIONS

An OPTIONS response includes the Allow header listing the HTTP methods the server accepts. Optionally, the server specifies further details in the message body.

Request

OPTIONS / HTTP/1.1
Host: www.example.re

Response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Allow: GET,HEAD,PUT,OPTIONS
Content-Type: text/plain;charset=UTF-8

Code references

.NET

HttpStatusCode.OK

Rust

http::StatusCode::OK

Rails

:ok

Go

http.StatusOK

Symfony

Response::HTTP_OK

Python3.5+

http.HTTPStatus.OK

Java

java.net.HttpURLConnection.HTTP_OK

Apache HttpComponents Core

org.apache.hc.core5.http.HttpStatus.SC_OK

Angular

@angular/common/http/HttpStatusCode.Ok

Takeaway

The HTTP 200 OK status code indicates a successful request. Depending on the HTTP method, details or resources are included in the message body.

See also

Last updated: March 5, 2026