The HTTP HEAD method requests the headers that would be returned if the HEAD request's URL was instead requested with the HTTP GET method. For example, if a URL might produce a large download, a HEAD request could read its Content-Length header to check the filesize without actually downloading the file.
A response to a HEAD method should not have a body. If it has one anyway, that body must be ignored: any entity headers that might describe the erroneous body are instead assumed to describe the response which a similar GET request would have received.
If the response to a HEAD request shows that a cached URL response is now outdated, the cached copy is invalidated even if no GET request was made.
| Request has body | No |
|---|---|
| Successful response has body | No |
| Safe | Yes |
| Idempotent | Yes |
| Cacheable | Yes |
| Allowed in HTML forms | No |
Syntax
HEAD /index.html
Specifications
| Specification | Title |
|---|---|
| RFC 7231, section 4.3.2: HEAD | Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP/1.1): Semantics and Content |
Browser compatibility
The compatibility table in this page is generated from structured data. If you'd like to contribute to the data, please check out https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data and send us a pull request.
| Desktop | Mobile | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
HEAD | Chrome Full support Yes | Edge Full support 12 | Firefox Full support Yes | IE Full support Yes | Opera Full support Yes | Safari Full support Yes | WebView Android Full support Yes | Chrome Android Full support Yes | Firefox Android Full support Yes | Opera Android Full support Yes | Safari iOS Full support Yes | Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes |
Legend
- Full support
- Full support