MIME Type

text/html

Document

Standard MIME type for HTML documents rendered by web browsers.

MIME type reference, HTTP example, browser usage, common mistakes, and related content.

What is the text/html MIME type?

The MIME type text/html is used to tell browsers, APIs, and servers how a file or response body should be interpreted.

MIME stands for Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions, and MIME types are now a standard part of HTTP responses and web content delivery.

When a browser or client receives a response with text/html, it uses that information to decide how the content should be processed, rendered, downloaded, or executed.

Example

Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8

HTTP example

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
Content-Length: 1256

Common file extensions

.html.htm

Common use cases

Web pages
Server-rendered HTML
Landing pages and websites

Common mistakes

Using the wrong MIME type for the file being served
Returning text/plain instead of text/html
Forgetting required parameters like charset when relevant
Using a deprecated MIME type in older server configurations
Serving assets with a mismatched Content-Type header, causing browser parsing issues

How browsers use it

Browsers use the Content-Type response header to decide how a response should be handled. For example, HTML is rendered as a page, CSS is parsed as styles, JavaScript is executed as script, and images are displayed visually. If the MIME type is incorrect, the browser may refuse to load the file correctly or may treat it as plain text or a download instead.

Browser support

Universal browser support. This is the standard MIME type for HTML documents.

Developer note

One of the most fundamental MIME types on the web. Browsers expect this for HTML pages.

Related MIME types

text/css application/javascript text/plain