Methods

HTTP defines a set of request methods to indicate the desired action to be performed for a given resource. Although they can also be nouns, these requests methods are sometimes referred as HTTP verbs. Each of them implements a different semantic, but some common features are shared by a group of them: e.g. a request method can be safe, idempotent, or cacheable.

GET

The GET method requests a representation of the specified resource. Requests using GET should only retrieve data.

HEAD

The HEAD method asks for a response identical to that of a GET request, but without the response body.

POST

The POST method is used to submit an entity to the specified resource, often causing a change in state or side effects on the server

PUT

The PUT method replaces all current representations of the target resource with the request payload.

DELETE

The DELETE method deletes the specified resource.

CONNECT

The CONNECT method establishes a tunnel to the server identified by the target resource.

OPTIONS

The OPTIONS method is used to describe the communication options for the target resource.

TRACE

The TRACE method performs a message loop-back test along the path to the target resource.

PATCH

The PATCH method is used to apply partial modifications to a resource.

Specifications

Specification	Title	Comment
RFC 7231, section 4: Request methods	Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP/1.1): Semantics and Content	Specifies GET, HEAD, POST, PUT, DELETE, CONNECT, OPTIONS, TRACE.
RFC 5789, section 2: Patch method	PATCH Method for HTTP	Specifies PATCH.

Browser compatibility

See also

• HTTP headers