HTTP 304 — Not Modified
3xx Redirection
What it means
The cached copy the client already has is still current, so no body is sent.
What to do about it
Nothing to fix — this is caching working correctly. If you never see 304s, check that you are sending ETag or Last-Modified.
Where it sits
304 belongs to the 3xx family: Further action is needed to complete the request — usually following a redirect.
HTTP/1.1 304 Not ModifiedChecking 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 304 correctly
# nginx
return 304;
# Express
res.status(304).end();
# Go
w.WriteHeader(304)
# Python (Flask)
return '', 304;Frequently asked questions
What does HTTP 304 mean?
The cached copy the client already has is still current, so no body is sent.
How do I fix a 304 error?
Nothing to fix — this is caching working correctly. If you never see 304s, check that you are sending ETag or Last-Modified.
Is 304 a client or server problem?
Neither — it is an instruction to look somewhere else, and clients normally follow it automatically.