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Co-authored-by: Hamish Willee <hamishwillee@gmail.com>
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bsmth and hamishwillee authored Aug 28, 2024
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{{GlossarySidebar}}

**Content headers** are a group of [HTTP headers](/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers) that describe the bodies of HTTP messages.
They specifically describe the {{Glossary("HTTP Content", "message content")}}, rather than the representation of a resource, meaning the length of message data, which part of the resource is carried in the data (for multi-part messages), any encoding applied for transport, and message integrity checks.
**Content headers** are the group of [HTTP headers](/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers) that describe the content of the body of an HTTP message, after any message framing in the body has been removed.
They specifically describe the properties of the {{Glossary("HTTP Content", "message content")}} that is conveyed in a particular message _as it is transported_, such as the length of the content, the transport encoding, which part of the resource is carried in the data (for multi-part messages), and message integrity checks.
They differ from the {{Glossary("Representation header", "Representation headers")}}, which describe the encoding, media type, language, and other characteristics of the resource, and allow the underlying data to be interpreted.

These headers were defined as "Payload headers" in {{RFC("7231")}}, but "content" is used instead because data contained in HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 frame payloads could be header data, body data, or other control information.
Later HTTP specifications don't mention "content headers" or expand on the list of relevant headers, but the semantics remain the same, so this way of classifying headers still applies.
These headers were defined as "Payload headers" in {{RFC("7231")}}, but are now referred to as "Content headers" because data contained in HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 frame payloads could be header data, body data, or other control information.
Later HTTP specifications don't mention "content headers" or expand on the list of relevant headers, but the semantics remain the same, so this way of classifying headers is still useful.

> [!NOTE]
> Content headers are not mutually exclusive with {{Glossary("Representation header", "Representation headers")}} which are typically more relevant to understanding HTTP message semantics.
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