Do browsers follow a 300 redirect automatically?
Some follow the Location header if one is present, but behaviour is not consistent. Without Location, the browser simply shows the body listing the available choices.
HTTP 300 MULTIPLE CHOICES
Several representations are available and the client may choose. 300 belongs to the 3xx redirection class and is defined in RFC 9110.
Loading the workbench.
About HTTP 300
What Does HTTP 300 Multiple Choices Mean?
Several representations are available and the client may choose. The code is registered with IANA and defined in RFC 9110.
Redirection: the client must take another step to finish the request. Every code from 300 to 399 shares that general meaning, so a client that does not recognise 300 must treat it like 300.
When Do You See a 300 Response?
300 Multiple Choices means the resource has several representations and the server is leaving the choice to the client, for example a document available in several languages or formats. RFC 9110 calls this reactive negotiation. In practice it is rare: browsers do not present the choices to users, and servers normally pick a variant themselves using the Accept and Accept-Language headers, which is proactive negotiation and avoids the extra round trip.
How Do You Handle a 300?
If the server has a preferred choice, it may send it in a Location header, and some clients will follow it automatically. The body should list the alternatives with links so a person or a script can pick one. Most sites are better off choosing a variant server-side and answering 200 with Vary naming the request headers that influenced the choice.
What Does a 300 Response Look Like?
HTTP/1.1 300 Multiple Choices
Location: /docs/guide.en.html
Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8300 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 and the Location target in the decoder.
Which Status Codes Are Related to 300?
- 301 Moved Permanently: The resource has a new permanent URL. Search engines move ranking to it. Clients may change POST to GET.
- 406 Not Acceptable: No representation matches the Accept headers the client sent.
- 302 Found: A temporary redirect. Clients may change POST to GET; use 307 to forbid that.
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
Is 300 cacheable?
Yes. RFC 9110 lists 300 as heuristically cacheable, so caches may store it even without explicit freshness information. Add Cache-Control if the choices change often.
Is HTTP 300 an error?
No. 300 is a redirection response, not an error.
Is a 300 response cacheable by default?
Yes. RFC 9110 lists 300 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.