ApplicationText-based

`application/json`

JSON

Learn about application/json, the standard MIME type for JSON data used in APIs, configuration files, and data exchange across the web.

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Expected extensions: .json

HTTP Content-Type Header

HTTP Header

Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8

Associated File Extensions

.json

Quick Facts

MIME Type	application/json
Category	Application
Type	Text-based (human-readable)
Extensions	.json

Common Usage

JSON is the dominant data interchange format on the web. It is used in REST APIs, GraphQL responses, configuration files (package.json, tsconfig.json), NoSQL databases like MongoDB, and virtually every modern web service.

Browsers natively parse JSON with JSON.parse().

Code Examples

HTML

<!-- Link or embed with explicit type -->
<link rel="stylesheet" href="file.json" type="application/json">

<!-- Or for script/media elements -->
<script type="application/json" src="file.json"></script>

Node.js

// Express.js
app.get('/file', (req, res) => {
  res.type('application/json');
  res.send(data);
});

// Node.js http
res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' });

nginx

# nginx.conf — add to types block or use default
types {
    application/json  json;
}

# Or set for a specific location
location /api/ {
    default_type application/json;
}