HTTP Methods Reference

Method Summary

All standard HTTP methods and their key properties:

Method	Purpose	Request Body	Response Body	Safe	Idempotent	Cacheable
GET	Retrieve a resource	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
HEAD	Get headers only	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
POST	Submit data / Create resource	Yes	Yes	No	No	Conditional
PUT	Replace entire resource	Yes	Optional	No	Yes	No
PATCH	Partial modification	Yes	Yes	No	No*	No
DELETE	Remove a resource	Optional	Optional	No	Yes	No
OPTIONS	Describe communication options	Optional	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
CONNECT	Establish tunnel	No	No	No	No	No
TRACE	Loop-back diagnostic	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No

* PATCH idempotency depends on the patch format used

Property	Meaning	Why It Matters
Safe	Does not modify server state	Safe methods can be prefetched, cached, and retried without side effects
Idempotent	Multiple identical requests = same result as one	Idempotent methods can be safely retried on network failure
Cacheable	Response can be stored for future use	Cacheable methods improve performance and reduce server load

Retrieves a representation of the specified resource. The most common HTTP method.

RFC	9110 Section 9.3.1
Request Body	Not allowed (semantically meaningless)
Successful Response	200 OK with resource in body
Use Cases	Fetching web pages, API data, images, files

Identical to GET but returns only headers, no body. Useful for checking resource metadata.

RFC	9110 Section 9.3.2
Request Body	Not allowed
Successful Response	200 OK with headers only (no body)
Use Cases	Check if resource exists, get file size, validate cache

Submits data to be processed. Creates new resources or triggers actions.

RFC	9110 Section 9.3.3
Request Body	Required (contains data to process)
Successful Response	201 Created (new resource) or 200 OK (action)
Use Cases	Form submissions, file uploads, creating records

Replaces the entire resource at the target URL. Creates if it doesn't exist.

RFC	9110 Section 9.3.4
Request Body	Required (complete resource representation)
Successful Response	200 OK or 204 No Content (update), 201 Created (new)
Use Cases	Full resource updates, file uploads to specific URLs

Applies partial modifications to a resource. More efficient than PUT for small updates.

RFC	5789
Request Body	Required (patch instructions or partial data)
Successful Response	200 OK or 204 No Content
Use Cases	Updating specific fields, JSON Patch operations

Removes the specified resource from the server.

RFC	9110 Section 9.3.5
Request Body	Optional (rarely used)
Successful Response	200 OK, 202 Accepted (queued), or 204 No Content
Use Cases	Removing records, files, or relationships

Describes available communication options for the target resource. Used for CORS preflight.

RFC	9110 Section 9.3.7
Request Body	Optional
Successful Response	200 OK or 204 No Content with Allow header
Use Cases	CORS preflight, API discovery

Establishes a tunnel to the server, typically for HTTPS through an HTTP proxy.

RFC	9110 Section 9.3.6
Request Body	Not allowed
Successful Response	200 Connection Established
Use Cases	HTTPS proxying, WebSocket upgrades through proxies

Performs a message loop-back test for debugging. Usually disabled for security.

RFC	9110 Section 9.3.8
Request Body	Not allowed
Successful Response	200 OK with request echoed in body
Use Cases	Debugging proxy chains (rarely used)

Standard method usage for CRUD operations:

Operation	Method	URL Pattern	Example
List all	GET	/resources	GET /users
Get one	GET	/resources/{id}	GET /users/42
Create	POST	/resources	POST /users
Replace	PUT	/resources/{id}	PUT /users/42
Update	PATCH	/resources/{id}	PATCH /users/42
Delete	DELETE	/resources/{id}	DELETE /users/42

If you want to...	Use	Not
Fetch data without side effects	GET	POST
Create a new resource (server assigns ID)	POST	PUT
Create/replace resource (client specifies ID)	PUT	POST
Update a few fields of a resource	PATCH	PUT
Replace entire resource with new version	PUT	PATCH
Remove a resource	DELETE	POST /delete
Check if resource exists (without body)	HEAD	GET
Query allowed methods / CORS preflight	OPTIONS	GET