Request

HTTP Accept-Encoding Header

Indicates which content encoding (compression algorithm) the client supports. The server may compress the response body using one of these methods.

Purpose

Enables the server to compress the response, reducing bandwidth usage and improving load times.

Accept-Encoding: gzip Accept-Encoding: compress, gzip Accept-Encoding: br Accept-Encoding: identity (no compression)

See how to use the Accept-Encoding header in different tools and languages.

curl -H "Accept-Encoding: gzip" https://api.example.com/data
curl --compressed https://api.example.com/data

Indicates which compression algorithm was applied to the response body. The client must use the same algorithm to decompress the data.

Indicates the media type (MIME type) of the resource being sent. Tells the client how to interpret the response body.

Determines how the response should be cached based on request headers. Ensures caches serve the correct version based on varying request criteria.

Specifies the transfer encoding applied to the message body. Chunked encoding is used when the response size is not known in advance.

Test your APIs and inspect response headers in real-time

Complete reference of all HTTP request and response headers

accept-encoding headerhttp accept-encodinghttp headers guide