HTTP Method Reference

Reference for HTTP methods — semantics, safety, and idempotency.

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HTTP methods9 methods

HTTP request methods with their safe, idempotent, cacheable, and request-body properties
Method	Safe	Idempotent	Cacheable	Request body	Description
GET	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Retrieve a representation of a resource. Must not change server state.
HEAD	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Identical to GET but the response carries headers only — useful for checking size, type, or existence.
POST	No	No	Rarely	Yes	Submit data for the target resource to process. Repeating it may create duplicates; cacheable only with explicit freshness headers.
PUT	No	Yes	No	Yes	Replace the target resource entirely with the enclosed representation. Sending it twice leaves the same result.
DELETE	No	Yes	No	Optional	Remove the target resource. Idempotent: deleting twice ends in the same state, even if the second call returns 404.
CONNECT	No	No	No	No	Ask a proxy to open a TCP tunnel to the target — how HTTPS traffic passes through a forward proxy.
OPTIONS	Yes	Yes	No	Optional	Ask what the server supports for a resource. Browsers send it automatically as the CORS preflight.
TRACE	Yes	Yes	No	No	Echo the received request back for diagnostics. Usually disabled — it can leak headers via cross-site tracing.
PATCH	No	No	No	Yes	Apply a partial modification. Not idempotent in general, though a specific patch format can be.

Safe

The method is read-only by definition: a safe request must not be expected to change server state, so crawlers and prefetchers may issue it freely.

Idempotent

Sending the identical request N times leaves the server in the same state as sending it once. This is what makes automatic retries safe.

Cacheable

The response may be stored and reused. GET and HEAD are cacheable by default; POST only when the response carries explicit freshness information.

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About HTTP Method Reference

Covers every HTTP method — GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS, and the rest — with its intended semantics, whether it is safe and idempotent, typical status codes, and REST usage conventions. The PUT vs PATCH and POST vs PUT distinctions are spelled out with examples.

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HTTP Method Reference

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About HTTP Method Reference

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