HTTP 303 — See Other
3xx Redirection
What it means
Redirects the client to fetch the result with GET, regardless of the original method. The classic POST-redirect-GET pattern.
What to do about it
Use it after a successful form POST so that a page refresh does not resubmit the form.
Where it sits
303 belongs to the 3xx family: Further action is needed to complete the request — usually following a redirect.
HTTP/1.1 303 See OtherChecking it yourself
# see the status code and headers only
curl -sI https://example.com/path
# follow redirects and print each hop
curl -sIL -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code} %{url_effective}\n" https://example.com/path
# JavaScript
const r = await fetch(url);
console.log(r.status, r.statusText);How this code behaves
| Cacheable by default | No — caches must not store this response unless explicit cache headers permit it. |
| Safe to retry | Not applicable. |
| Effect on search indexing | No direct effect. |
Returning 303 correctly
# nginx
return 303;
# Express
res.status(303).json({ error: 'See Other' });
# Go
w.WriteHeader(303)
# Python (Flask)
return jsonify(error='See Other'), 303;Frequently asked questions
What does HTTP 303 mean?
Redirects the client to fetch the result with GET, regardless of the original method. The classic POST-redirect-GET pattern.
How do I fix a 303 error?
Use it after a successful form POST so that a page refresh does not resubmit the form.
Is 303 a client or server problem?
Neither — it is an instruction to look somewhere else, and clients normally follow it automatically.