206 Partial Content

What 206 Partial Content means {#what}

Sent in response to a range request — when the client asked for only part of a resource using the Range header. Essential for video streaming, resumable downloads, and large file transfers.

When you’ll see a 206 {#when}

• Video players buffering a specific segment
• Download managers resuming an interrupted download
• Any client sending a Range: bytes=0-1023 header

When to use 206 {#use}

• Support range requests for any large binary resource (files, videos, audio)
• Always include Content-Range in the response