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Look Up an HTTP Status Code
Http Status Code Lookup for quick browser-based work with focused input and copy-ready output.
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Direct Answer
Use the HTTP Status Code Lookup when an API, browser, or server log shows a status code and you need to know what it means and what usually causes it.
The Five Status Code Classes
Every HTTP status code falls into one of five ranges, and the first digit alone tells you the general category of response before you even look up the specific code.
- 1xx (Informational): the request was received and processing continues.
- 2xx (Success): the request was received, understood, and accepted.
- 3xx (Redirection): further action is needed to complete the request, usually following a different URL.
- 4xx (Client Error): the request has a problem, such as bad syntax or missing authentication.
- 5xx (Server Error): the server failed to fulfill a request that appeared valid.
Codes Developers Frequently Mix Up
A handful of status codes are so commonly confused with each other that getting them right (both when returning them from your own API and when reading them from someone else's) is worth memorizing explicitly.
- 401 Unauthorized actually means unauthenticated (no or invalid credentials); 403 Forbidden means the credentials are fine but access isn't permitted.
- 301 and 308 are permanent redirects; 302 and 307 are temporary. The 307/308 pair explicitly preserves the original HTTP method and body, while 301/302 historically allow clients to switch to GET.
- 404 Not Found means the resource can't be located; 410 Gone means it existed before but has been intentionally and permanently removed.
- 502 Bad Gateway means an upstream server sent an invalid response, 503 Service Unavailable means the server is temporarily overloaded or down for maintenance, and 504 Gateway Timeout means an upstream server didn't respond in time.
How to Use Http Status Code Lookup
- Open the tool on this page.
- Enter or paste your input in the field provided.
- Review the result shown on the page, then copy or download it.
Reference
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Purpose | Complete the utility task shown on this page. |
| Input | The value or content requested by the tool. |
| Result | The generated or processed output shown on the page. |
| Best for | Quick browser-based utility work. |
| Category | Developer Tools |
| Works on | Desktop, tablet, and mobile browsers |
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A Focused Http Status Code Lookup Alternative
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- Puts the tool input and result near the top of the page
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Useful Related Tools
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between 401 and 403?
401 Unauthorized actually means the request lacks valid authentication credentials, despite the confusing name; the client needs to log in or provide a valid token. 403 Forbidden means the server understood who the client is but that client simply doesn't have permission to access the resource.
What's the difference between a 301 and a 302 redirect?
301 is a permanent redirect, telling clients and search engines to update their records to the new URL going forward. 302 is a temporary redirect, indicating the resource is only at the new URL for now and future requests should still use the original URL.
What's the difference between 307/308 and 301/302?
307 and 308 explicitly guarantee the original HTTP method and request body are preserved on the redirect, which matters for non-GET requests like POST. 301 and 302 historically allowed (and in many client implementations still allow) the method to be changed to GET on redirect, which can silently break a POST request that expected to stay a POST.
What does 429 mean and how should a client respond?
429 Too Many Requests indicates the client has hit a rate limit. A well-behaved client should read the Retry-After header if present and back off before retrying, rather than immediately retrying and making the rate limiting worse.
What's the difference between 404 and 410?
404 Not Found means the server has no idea what resource is being requested at that URL, which could be temporary or a simple typo. 410 Gone is a deliberate statement that the resource used to exist at that URL but has been permanently and intentionally removed, which is a stronger signal for search engines to deindex it.
What's the difference between 502, 503, and 504?
502 Bad Gateway means a server acting as a proxy or gateway received an invalid response from an upstream server. 503 Service Unavailable means the server itself is temporarily unable to handle the request, often due to overload or maintenance. 504 Gateway Timeout means a proxy or gateway didn't get a response from the upstream server in time.
What does the 2xx class generally mean, and is 201 different from 200?
The 2xx range means the request succeeded. 200 OK is the general success response, while 201 Created specifically indicates that the request resulted in a new resource being created, commonly returned by a POST endpoint along with a Location header pointing to the new resource.
What is a 1xx informational response used for?
1xx codes indicate the request was received and the server is continuing to process it before a final response. 100 Continue, for example, tells a client that it's safe to proceed sending the rest of a large request body.
Why would an API return 200 with an error message in the body instead of a proper error status code?
Some APIs (often for simplicity or legacy reasons) return 200 for every response and embed success or error state inside the JSON body itself. This is generally considered poor practice because it forces every client to parse the body just to know whether the request succeeded, defeating the purpose of status codes.
What does status code 418 mean?
418 I'm a Teapot originated as an April Fools' joke in RFC 2324 and isn't part of standard HTTP semantics, but some frameworks and services still implement it playfully or as an easter egg. It has no serious standardized use case.
Does a 304 response mean an error occurred?
No, 304 Not Modified is part of the 3xx redirection class and is actually a caching optimization, telling the client its cached copy of the resource is still valid and doesn't need to be re-downloaded. It's a normal, expected response, not an error.
Should a validation error return 400 or 422?
400 Bad Request is the general-purpose code for malformed syntax the server can't process at all. 422 Unprocessable Entity is more specific, indicating the request was syntactically valid but failed semantic validation, such as a required field being empty or a value being out of an acceptable range.
Do redirects always preserve the original HTTP method?
Only 307 and 308 explicitly guarantee the method and body are preserved. 301 and 302 are ambiguous in the original spec, and in practice most browsers convert a POST to a GET when following those redirects, which is a frequent source of unexpected behavior.