< HTTP/1.1 200 OK

TL;DR: 200 OK means your request succeeded. The server processed it and is returning the requested data.

200 OK is the most common HTTP status code. It means everything worked—the server received your request, understood it, processed it successfully, and is sending back the result.

What is 200 OK?

When a server returns 200 OK, it’s saying “your request succeeded, here’s what you asked for”:

GET /api/users/123 HTTP/1.1
Host: api.example.com

Response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json
Content-Length: 89

{
  "id": 123,
  "name": "Alice Johnson",
  "email": "alice@example.com"
}

When Servers Return 200

GET Request - Resource Retrieved

GET /products/456 HTTP/1.1
Host: shop.example.com

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

{
  "id": 456,
  "name": "Wireless Headphones",
  "price": 79.99
}

POST Request - Action Completed

POST /api/login HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: application/json

{"email": "user@example.com", "password": "..."}

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

{
  "token": "eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIs...",
  "user": {"id": 123, "name": "User"}
}

PUT Request - Resource Updated

PUT /api/users/123 HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: application/json

{"name": "Alice Smith"}

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

{
  "id": 123,
  "name": "Alice Smith",
  "updatedAt": "2026-01-19T10:30:00Z"
}

DELETE Request - Resource Removed

DELETE /api/posts/789 HTTP/1.1

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

{
  "message": "Post deleted successfully",
  "deletedId": 789
}

Response Body Content

The response body varies by request type:

HTML Page

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

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head><title>Welcome</title></head>
<body><h1>Hello, World!</h1></body>
</html>

JSON Data

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

{
  "users": [
    {"id": 1, "name": "Alice"},
    {"id": 2, "name": "Bob"}
  ],
  "total": 2
}

Image File

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: image/png
Content-Length: 12345

[binary PNG data]

Empty Array (Valid 200)

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

{
  "results": [],
  "total": 0
}

Common Response Headers

Header	Purpose	Example
Content-Type	Body format	application/json
Content-Length	Body size	1234
Cache-Control	Caching rules	max-age=3600
ETag	Resource version	"abc123"
Last-Modified	Last change	Sat, 18 Jan 2026 10:00:00 GMT
Set-Cookie	Set cookies	session=xyz; HttpOnly

200 OK vs Other Success Codes

Code	Name	When to Use
200	OK	General success with response body
201	Created	New resource created (POST)
202	Accepted	Request queued for processing
204	No Content	Success but no body to return

Choosing the Right Code

# GET request - use 200
GET /users/123 → 200 OK with user data

# POST creating resource - use 201
POST /users → 201 Created with new user + Location header

# DELETE with no response body - use 204
DELETE /users/123 → 204 No Content

# POST triggering async job - use 202
POST /reports/generate → 202 Accepted

Getting 200 OK right

Do Return Useful Data

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

{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "id": 123,
    "name": "Alice"
  },
  "meta": {
    "requestId": "req-abc-123",
    "timestamp": "2026-01-19T10:30:00Z"
  }
}

Don’t Return 200 for Errors

# ❌ Bad: 200 with error in body
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
{"error": "User not found"}

# ✅ Good: Proper error status
HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
{"error": "User not found"}

Include Appropriate Headers

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json
Cache-Control: max-age=300
ETag: "v1-abc123"
X-Request-ID: req-xyz-789

{"data": "..."}

JavaScript Handling

Fetch API

const response = await fetch('/api/users/123')

if (response.ok) {
  // true for 200-299
  const user = await response.json()
  console.log('User:', user)
} else {
  console.error('Request failed:', response.status)
}

Checking Specifically for 200

const response = await fetch('/api/data')

if (response.status === 200) {
  const data = await response.json()
  // Process successful response
}

With Error Handling

async function fetchUser(id) {
  const response = await fetch(`/api/users/${id}`)

  if (!response.ok) {
    throw new Error(`HTTP ${response.status}`)
  }

  return response.json()
}

try {
  const user = await fetchUser(123)
  displayUser(user)
} catch (error) {
  showError(error.message)
}

API Response Patterns

Standard Success Response

{
  "status": "success",
  "data": {
    "id": 123,
    "name": "Alice"
  }
}

Paginated Response

{
  "data": [
    { "id": 1, "name": "Alice" },
    { "id": 2, "name": "Bob" }
  ],
  "pagination": {
    "page": 1,
    "perPage": 20,
    "total": 150,
    "totalPages": 8
  }
}

Response with Metadata

{
  "data": { "id": 123 },
  "meta": {
    "requestId": "req-abc",
    "processingTime": "45ms",
    "apiVersion": "v1"
  }
}

Try It Yourself

See a 200 OK response in our request builder:

1. Select GET method
2. Set path to /posts/1
3. Click Send and observe the 200 response with post data

Try it with curl

curl -i https://api.example.com/items/42

Example output (illustrative, not captured from a real server):

HTTP/2 200
content-type: application/json
content-length: 41

{"id":42,"name":"Widget","price":9.99}

-i prints the status line and headers before the body. Add -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}\n' to print only the status code.

Related Status Codes

• 201 Created - New resource created
• 204 No Content - Success with no body
• 304 Not Modified - Cached version is current
• 400 Bad Request - Request was invalid
• 500 Internal Server Error - Server failed

Related Concepts

• HTTP Methods - Request types
• Content-Type - Response format
• Caching - Storing responses
• 206 Partial Content - Only the requested byte range

See also the comparison 200 vs 201 vs 204: choosing the right success code for create, read, update and delete.

// GET — return resource
app.get('/api/users/:id', async (req, res) => {
  const user = await db.users.findById(req.params.id)
  if (!user) return res.status(404).json({ error: 'Not found' })
  res.status(200).json(user) // or just res.json(user)
})

// POST — action succeeded, return result
app.post('/api/search', async (req, res) => {
  const results = await search(req.body.query)
  res.json({ results, total: results.length })
  // 200 is default — no need to set explicitly
})

// app/api/users/[id]/route.ts
export async function GET(
  _req: Request,
  { params }: { params: { id: string } }
) {
  const user = await db.users.findById(params.id)
  if (!user) return new Response(null, { status: 404 })
  // Response.json() defaults to 200
  return Response.json(user)
}

from django.http import JsonResponse

def user_detail(request, user_id):
    try:
        user = User.objects.get(pk=user_id)
        # JsonResponse defaults to status=200
        return JsonResponse(user.to_dict())
    except User.DoesNotExist:
        return JsonResponse({'error': 'Not found'}, status=404)