HTTP Status Codes

204 No Content

Success with no body: the request succeeded but there is nothing to return. Common for DELETE and for saves that leave the client's view unchanged.

What it means

204 No Content tells the client the action succeeded and there is intentionally no body. A 204 must not include a message body, and browsers do not navigate or refresh on it — handy for fire-and-forget actions.

HTTP RESPONSE
HTTP/1.1 204 No Content
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2026 14:00:00 GMT

Why it matters

  • It saves bandwidth when a client does not need the updated representation, e.g. after a DELETE.
  • Because browsers stay on the current page, 204 is useful for beacons and in-place saves.

Common mistakes

  • Sending a body with a 204 — the spec forbids it and some clients break.
  • Using 204 when the client actually needs the updated resource (return 200 with the body instead).

How WebInspect checks this

  • WebInspect notes when a 204 carries an unexpected body or Content-Length, a common server misconfiguration.