200 OK

The request succeeded. The response body contains the result, whose meaning depends on the HTTP method used.

What It Means

A 200 OK response indicates the server understood the request, accepted it, and is returning the requested resource or the result of the operation. It is the standard success response for the 2xx class. The response body is present and meaningful — unlike 204 No Content, which signals success without a body.

200 is the default success code. When a server processes a request correctly and has something to return, 200 is almost always the right choice.

When It Occurs

• GET. The response body contains a representation of the requested resource (HTML, JSON, image, etc.).
• POST. The response body contains the result of the action, such as the created or updated resource. (Note: 201 Created is preferred when a new resource was created and has a stable URL.)
• PUT / PATCH. The response body contains the updated representation of the resource.
• HEAD. Identical to a GET 200, but the body is omitted. Only headers are returned.
• DELETE. Some servers return 200 with a confirmation body; others prefer 204 No Content.

Common Issues

• Soft 404s. A page that says "not found" or "no results" returns 200 instead of 404. Search engines index these as valid pages, causing SEO problems. Return 404 or 410 when content genuinely does not exist.
• Error wrapped in 200. APIs sometimes return {"error": "unauthorized"} with a 200 status. This prevents clients and monitoring tools from detecting the failure correctly. Use the proper 4xx or 5xx code instead.
• Cacheability. A 200 response is cacheable when the response includes explicit caching headers (Cache-Control, Expires). Without them, caches may store it heuristically. Ensure Cache-Control is set appropriately — especially for dynamic responses that must not be cached.

How to Diagnose

Use the Probe tool to inspect the status code and response headers for any URL. Check Cache-Control and Content-Type to verify the response is what you expect. If a page is returning 200 for content that should be a 404, check your application's routing and error-handling logic.