Check your browser HTTP headers

Click the button below to check the HTTP headers sent by your browser.
You can also check website HTTP headers & redirections.

About HTTP Request Headers

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) follows a client-server model in which the client (typically a web-browser being used by an end user) opens a connection and waits until it receives a response from the server (typically a destination URL). The header used to send requests to the server is known as HTTP Request Header.

What are HTTP Request Headers?

An HTTP request header helps the user in accessing web-pages across the Internet. Each time a user visits a website, a new HTTP request is sent to the server. This request is sent along with some basic data about the requesting client so that the server can identify the request and send a response back.

This data is bundled into what’s known as the HTTP request header, and it may include information like the source IP address, user’s browser type (like Mozilla, Chrome, etc.), requested URL, and some additional information. In response to the HTTP request header, the web server sends back a HTTP response header which contains the data that the client had requested.

What are some common HTTP Request Headers?

Host

This is a mandatory header field which contains information regarding the internet host and port number of the resource from which the data has been requested (for example, “Host: en.wikipedia.org”).

Authorization

Used when the client desires to authenticate the request. Credentials containing authenticate information are sent to the server (for example, “Authorization: Basic AbCdE123$5”).

Accept-Language

Used when the client requests for the response to be in a specific language or a set of languages (for example, “Accept-Language: en-US”). Multiple languages can be specified through a comma-separated list.

Expect

Used when a client requires a specific set of server behaviors. If a server received an HTTP request header containing an ‘Expect’ field value which it doesn’t support, it must mandatorily respond with an ‘Expectation Failed (417)’ status (for example, “Expect: 100-continue | expectation-extension”).

Cookie

Contains a name-value pair which is stored for that URL (for example, “Cookie: name=value”). Multiple cookies can be specified through a comma-separated list.

How to check what HTTP headers are sent by my browser?

When troubleshooting a few issues, you might need to check the http headers have been sent by your browser, and thus, it’s necessary to know how and where to check for them.

HTTP request headers are easily accessible in the web browser itself. To access them,

1. Open the webpage whose headers have to be checked.
2. Right click and select ‘Inspect’ to open developer tools.
3. Select the network tab and refresh or reload the page.
4. Select any HTTP request from the left panel and the header will be displayed on the right.

There are several other ways which can be used to interpret the character encoding information of the HTTP headers. HTTP Header Viewers will show all the headers and also the source of information returned from the server. It makes the work easy and gives a better outlook to the information encoded in the headers.

What’s the simplest way to check HTTP headers?

The easiest method to check what HTTP headers are sent by a web browser is by using the free tool above.