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Accept-Encoding Header

Declares what compression algorithms the client supports for the response payload.

Header TypeRequest Header
SpecificationStandard RFC compliant
Associated CodesHTTP 406

What is the Accept-Encoding header?

The Accept-Encoding request header advertises the compression formats (such as gzip, deflate, or br for Brotli) that the client is capable of decoding.

API Usage & Best Practices

  • Enable compression at the gateway: Ensure your API gateway or web server (Nginx, Cloudflare) automatically compresses JSON payloads using the best algorithm supported by the client.
  • Significant performance gains: Compressing JSON responses can reduce payload size by up to 70-80% for large lists.

Examples

GET /v1/leads HTTP/1.1
Host: api.apiguide.dev
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate, br

Associated HTTP Status Codes

HTTP 406 — Not Acceptable

The server cannot produce a response matching the Accept headers sent by the client.

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