Why does my video player make so many 206 requests?
Players fetch media in chunks with Range headers so they can start playing early and seek anywhere. Each chunk is a separate 206 response, which is normal and efficient.
HTTP 206 PARTIAL CONTENT
Only the requested byte range is returned. Used for resumable downloads and video seeking. 206 belongs to the 2xx success class and is defined in RFC 9110.
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About HTTP 206
What Does HTTP 206 Partial Content Mean?
Only the requested byte range is returned. Used for resumable downloads and video seeking. The code is registered with IANA and defined in RFC 9110.
Success: the request was received, understood, and accepted. Every code from 200 to 299 shares that general meaning, so a client that does not recognise 206 must treat it like 200.
When Do You See a 206 Response?
206 Partial Content is the answer to a Range request, such as bytes=1000000-. Download managers use it to resume interrupted transfers, video and audio players use it to seek without fetching the whole file, and PDF viewers fetch individual pages this way. The response carries only the requested bytes. When several ranges are requested at once, the body becomes multipart/byteranges with one part per range.
How Do You Handle a 206?
Servers must send Content-Range (for example bytes 0-1023/146515) and a matching Content-Length, and should send Accept-Ranges: bytes on full responses to advertise support. Use If-Range with an ETag on resumed downloads so a changed file is sent whole instead of stitched. If the range is invalid, answer 416. If ranges are unsupported, ignoring the header and sending 200 with the full body is allowed.
What Does a 206 Response Look Like?
HTTP/1.1 206 Partial Content
Content-Range: bytes 0-1023/146515
Content-Length: 1024
Content-Type: video/mp4206 is cacheable by default under RFC 9110: a browser or CDN may store it and reuse it even without explicit freshness headers, using a heuristic lifetime. Send Cache-Control to say exactly how long.
To inspect a real one without sending it anywhere:
- Copy the response headers from your browser Network tab, or from
curl -i. - Paste them into the Header decoder to see every header explained.
- Check caching in the Cache lane.
Which Status Codes Are Related to 206?
- 416 Range Not Satisfiable: The requested byte range is outside the resource.
- 200 OK: The request succeeded. The body depends on the method.
- 412 Precondition Failed: An If-Match or If-Unmodified-Since condition was false. Used for optimistic locking.
Browse every code on the HTTP status codes page.
What Other Lanes Are in the Reference Section?
- HTTP status codes: Every IANA-registered status code, with a page per code.
- MIME types: File extensions to Content-Type, searchable both ways, plus a Content-Type parser.
- HTTP methods: GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE and the rest: safe, idempotent, cacheable.
Elsewhere in 2http: Header decoder, Cookie decoder, Cache-Control decoder, CORS checker, User-agent parser, and all eleven lanes on the 2http home page. Part of the 2suite.io privacy-first ecosystem.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if the file changes during a resumed download?
If the client sent If-Range with the original ETag, the server notices the mismatch and returns the whole new file with 200 instead of a partial range, avoiding a corrupted mix.
Is HTTP 206 an error?
No. 206 is a success response, not an error.
Is a 206 response cacheable by default?
Yes. RFC 9110 lists 206 as heuristically cacheable, so caches may store it without explicit headers. Use Cache-Control to control how long.
How Can You Verify That Nothing Leaves This Browser?
You do not have to take our word that your headers stay here. Developer tools show every request a page makes, so you can watch this page work and confirm that nothing is sent. The check takes under a minute.
- Open your browser developer tools with
F12, orCmd+Option+Ion a Mac, and select the Network tab. - Reload the page and let it finish. You will see the page's own files, its web fonts, and one anonymous page-view request. Nothing has been typed yet, so none of them can contain your headers.
- Click the clear icon in the Network tab so that the log is empty.
- Paste real headers into any lane and read the result.
- Look at the Network tab again. It is still empty. For extra proof, turn on offline mode after the page loads and every lane keeps working.
Only two things can add a line to that log, and neither carries your headers. Submitting the feedback form sends the vote and comment you typed. Typing characters in a script the page has not displayed yet, such as Cyrillic or Greek, can make the browser fetch the matching font file, and that request names only the font.
2http never sends a request on your behalf: the request builder writes code for you to run, and the meta inspector reads source you paste instead of fetching a URL. The production site also sends a Content-Security-Policy header that tells your browser to refuse connections to anywhere except this site and the anonymous analytics endpoint.