Response

HTTP Content-Encoding Header

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

Purpose

Reduces response payload size by applying compression, improving transfer speed and bandwidth usage.

Content-Encoding: gzip Content-Encoding: br (Brotli) Content-Encoding: deflate Content-Encoding: identity (no encoding)

Code Examples

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

curl -I --compressed https://api.example.com/data
# Response header:
# Content-Encoding: gzip

# Without compression:
curl -H "Accept-Encoding: identity" https://api.example.com/data

Related Headers

Accept-Encoding

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

Content-Type

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

Content-Length

Indicates the size of the response body in bytes. Helps the client know how much data to expect and when the response is complete.

Transfer-Encoding

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

API Response Time Checker

Test your APIs and inspect response headers in real-time

HTTP Headers Reference

Complete reference of all HTTP request and response headers

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