indicates what content codings have been applied to the representation, beyond those inherent in the media type, and thus what decoding mechanisms have to be applied in order to obtain data in the media type referenced by the Content-Type header field.
Quick facts
Description
indicates what content codings have been applied to the representation, beyond those inherent in the media type, and thus what decoding mechanisms have to be applied in order to obtain data in the media type referenced by the Content-Type header field.
Syntax
Content-Encoding: gzip
Related headers
Frequently asked questions
indicates what content codings have been applied to the representation, beyond those inherent in the media type, and thus what decoding mechanisms have to be applied in order to obtain data in the media type referenced by the Content-Type header field.
It is classified as a representation header and can appear in requests or responses depending on context.
Sources & standards
Updated 2026-08-18
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