MIME Types — Complete Media Type Reference
A comprehensive reference for MIME types (Media Types) used in HTTP Content-Type headers. MIME types tell the browser how to interpret and display files. Test HTTP headers and responses with our REST Client.
What are MIME Types?
MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) types are a standardized way to indicate the nature and format of a document, file, or byte stream. They are used in the Content-Type HTTP header to tell the client how to process the response body. The format is type/subtype — for example, text/html for HTML documents or application/json for JSON data.
Common MIME Types for Web Development
Below is a categorized reference of the most frequently used MIME types.
Text & Code
| MIME Type | Extension |
|---|---|
| text/plain | .txt |
| text/html | .html, .htm |
| text/css | .css |
| text/javascript | .js |
| text/csv | .csv |
| text/markdown | .md |
| text/xml | .xml |
| text/yaml | .yaml, .yml |
Application
| MIME Type | Extension |
|---|---|
| application/json | .json |
| application/pdf | |
| application/zip | .zip |
| application/gzip | .gz |
| application/xml | .xml |
| application/octet-stream | .bin |
| application/wasm | .wasm |
| application/x-www-form-urlencoded | — |
Image
| MIME Type | Extension |
|---|---|
| image/jpeg | .jpg, .jpeg |
| image/png | .png |
| image/gif | .gif |
| image/webp | .webp |
| image/avif | .avif |
| image/svg+xml | .svg |
| image/bmp | .bmp |
| image/x-icon | .ico |
Video
| MIME Type | Extension |
|---|---|
| video/mp4 | .mp4 |
| video/webm | .webm |
| video/ogg | .ogv |
| video/x-msvideo | .avi |
| video/quicktime | .mov |
| video/mpeg | .mpeg, .mpg |
Audio
| MIME Type | Extension |
|---|---|
| audio/mpeg | .mp3 |
| audio/ogg | .ogg |
| audio/wav | .wav |
| audio/webm | .weba |
| audio/aac | .aac |
| audio/flac | .flac |
Documents & Fonts
| MIME Type | Extension |
|---|---|
| application/msword | .doc |
| application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document | .docx |
| application/vnd.ms-excel | .xls |
| application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet | .xlsx |
| application/vnd.ms-powerpoint | .ppt |
| application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation | .pptx |
| font/woff | .woff |
| font/woff2 | .woff2 |
| font/ttf | .ttf |
| font/otf | .otf |
Quick Reference by Extension
.htmltext/html.csstext/css.jstext/javascript.jsonapplication/json.xmlapplication/xml.pdfapplication/pdf.zipapplication/zip.jpgimage/jpeg.pngimage/png.webpimage/webp.svgimage/svg+xml.gifimage/gif.mp4video/mp4.mp3audio/mpeg.wasmapplication/wasm.woff2font/woff2How MIME Types are Used
HTTP Content-Type
Content-Type: application/json
The server tells the client what format the response body is in.
HTTP Accept
Accept: application/json, text/html
The client tells the server which formats it can accept for the response.
HTML meta tag
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
Declares the content type and character encoding of an HTML document.
Server configuration
AddType application/wasm .wasm
Configures a web server to serve files with the correct MIME type.