Accept header vs Content-Type Header

I occasionally get confused between the Accept and the Content-Type Headers and this post is a way of clarifying the difference for myself. Let me summarize the difference to start with and then go onto a little bit of detail -
Accept and Content-type are both headers sent from a client(browser say) to a service.
Accept header is a way for a client to specify the media type of the response content it is expecting and Content-type is a way to specify the media type of request being sent from the client to the server.

To expand on this:

Accept header to quote the HTTP/1.1 RFC:

The Accept request-header field can be used to specify certain media types which are acceptable for the response.

An example of an Accept header for a json request to a REST based service will be the following:

Accept: application/json

This is saying the response expected is a json content.

Content-Type to quote from the HTTP/1.1 RFC:

The Content-Type entity-header field indicates the media type of the entity-body sent to the recipient or, in the case of the HEAD method, the media type that would have been sent had the request been a GET.

As a sample if a json is being sent from a browser to a server, then the content type header would look like this:

Content-Type: application/json

8 comments:

AnonymousMay 22, 2013 at 2:40 AM
Subtle but useful. Also note that there is a "Content-Type" in response headers as well. Not to be confused with the content type explained in the above article.
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AnonymousJune 11, 2015 at 7:16 AM
Thank you. Clear explanation.
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AnonymousNovember 27, 2015 at 4:17 AM
Can "Accept" header be a part of http response ?
or
Can "Content-Type" header be present in http request?
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Accept Request Header: If You Make Request To Server via HTTP, It Is Possible to specify which type of response you want by setting "Accept" request Header.

so, finally Accept Request Header used to get specific HTTP Response.

in Spring-rest: Accept Header ---- @ResponseBody( Uses Produces="MiMEType")

Content-Type Request Header: Which Tells to server which type of request coming from client.

in Spring-rest : Content-Type ----- @RequestBody ( Uses Consumes="MIMEType")

Note: MIME Means Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension.

you can find clear Explanation from https://www.tutorialspoint.com/html/mime_media_types.htm
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Thank you. Simply explained and much needed.
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Accept header vs Content-Type Header