HTTP 206 Partial Content

The response carries only the byte range you asked for with a Range header, described by Content-Range. This is how resumable downloads and media seeking work.

Defined in RFC 9110 §15.3.7 — 206 Partial Content · MDN reference

Where you meet HTTP 206 in production

Video and audio scrubbing, resumable downloads, and any client that asks for part of a large file with a Range header.

Why you would test it

Verify the range you receive is the range you requested, and that Content-Range agrees with the body length — off-by-one errors here corrupt files silently.

What your client should do about a 206

Check the Content-Range header against what you asked for rather than assuming the server honoured the exact range. A server may return a different range, or ignore the request and answer 200 with the whole entity — which is legal, and will quietly blow up a client sized for a chunk.

206 versus the codes it gets confused with

• 206 vs 200 OK — A 200 to a ranged request means the server ignored the Range header and sent everything.
• 206 vs 416 Range Not Satisfiable — 416 means the range you asked for lies outside the resource. 206 means it was satisfiable and here it is.

Endpoints that return 206

1 endpoint in this playground answers with 206. Every one is free, needs no signup, and can be called from the browser or with curl.

• GET https://funapi.dev/api/storage/v1/objects/{key} — Partial content (Object Storage API) Open & run this endpoint

Questions about HTTP 206

How do I request a partial response?

Send a Range header, e.g. Range: bytes=0-1023. The server answers 206 with Content-Range if it can satisfy it.

Is 206 cacheable?

Yes, but partial responses interact with caching in subtle ways — validators must match before a cache may combine ranges.

Other success codes

• 200 OK
• 201 Created
• 202 Accepted
• 204 No Content
• 207 Multi-Status

All HTTP status codes · All 39 mock REST APIs · Getting started guide

Last updated 6 September 2026