HTTP 206 — Partial Content
HTTP 206
Partial Content
The server is returning only the requested byte range of a file, not the whole thing.
What 206 actually means
The client sent a `Range` header asking for part of a file and the server obliged. This is what makes video seeking, resumable downloads and parallel download managers work: a browser scrubbing to the middle of an MP4 asks for exactly those bytes rather than fetching the file from the start. The response carries a `Content-Range` header saying which bytes it contains and how large the whole file is.
Common causes
- A video or audio player requested a byte range to seek
- A download resumed after being interrupted
- A download manager fetched several chunks of one file in parallel
If you're just trying to view the page
- Nothing — this is how seeking and resuming downloads are supposed to work
- If video seeking does not work on a site, the server is probably ignoring range requests rather than returning 206
If it's your site
- Advertise support with `Accept-Ranges: bytes`; without it clients will not try
- Serve `Content-Range` correctly — an off-by-one on the end byte corrupts downloads in ways that are painful to trace
- Many application frameworks do not implement ranges; serve large media through a static file server or CDN that does
- If the requested range is outside the file, return 416, not 206 with empty content
Reference
- Status code
- 206
- Reason phrase
- Partial Content
- Category
- 2xx — Success
- Cacheable by default
- Yes
- Defined in
- RFC 9110 §15.3.7
Common questions
- What does HTTP 206 mean?
- The server is returning only the requested byte range of a file, not the whole thing. The client sent a `Range` header asking for part of a file and the server obliged. This is what makes video seeking, resumable downloads and parallel download managers work: a browser scrubbing to the middle of an MP4 asks for exactly those bytes rather than fetching the file from the start.
- How do I fix a 206 error?
- Nothing — this is how seeking and resuming downloads are supposed to work
- Is 206 a client error or a server error?
- 206 is in the 2xx range, which means success. It is not an error at all.
Related pages
- 200 OK The request worked and the response contains what was asked for.
- 204 No Content The request succeeded and there is deliberately no body to send back.
- 201 Created The request succeeded and a new resource was created as a result.
- 202 Accepted The request was accepted for processing, but the work has not finished yet.
- 207 Multi-Status A WebDAV response carrying separate status codes for several resources at once.
- 203 Non-Authoritative Information The request succeeded, but an intermediary modified the response on the way.
- 205 Reset Content The request succeeded and the client should clear the form that sent it.
- 208 Already Reported Inside a WebDAV multi-status response, this member was already listed earlier so
- 226 IM Used The server is returning a delta against a copy the client already has, rather th