TextText-based

text/plain

Plain Text

Reference for text/plain, the fundamental MIME type for unformatted text content without any markup or styling.

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Expected extensions: .txt, .text, .log

HTTP Content-Type Header

HTTP Header
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8

Associated File Extensions

.txt.text.log

Quick Facts

MIME Typetext/plain
CategoryText
TypeText-based (human-readable)
Extensions.txt, .text, .log

Common Usage

Plain text is the simplest and most universal text format. It is used for README files, configuration files, log files, source code (as a fallback), and any content that should be displayed without formatting.

Virtually every text editor and programming language can read plain text.

Code Examples

HTML
<!-- Link or embed with explicit type -->
<link rel="stylesheet" href="file.txt" type="text/plain">

<!-- Or for script/media elements -->
<script type="text/plain" src="file.txt"></script>
Node.js
// Express.js
app.get('/file', (req, res) => {
  res.type('text/plain');
  res.send(data);
});

// Node.js http
res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'text/plain' });
nginx
# nginx.conf — add to types block or use default
types {
    text/plain  txt text log;
}

# Or set for a specific location
location /api/ {
    default_type text/plain;
}

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