/codes /django/django-http-response-classes

Django HttpResponse subclasses and their status codes

updated 2026-10-20

tool: Django
versions: Django 4.2 – 6.1
os: any

Django ships an HttpResponse subclass for the common status codes, so a view can return HttpResponseNotFound() instead of setting status=404 by hand. For 404 the idiomatic way is to raise Http404, which Django turns into a 404 page; for other codes pass status= to HttpResponse or JsonResponse.

The classes, with the status codes they send

bash

python -c '
import django
from django.conf import settings
settings.configure(SECRET_KEY="dev")
django.setup()
from django import http
for name in ["HttpResponse", "HttpResponseRedirect", "HttpResponsePermanentRedirect", "HttpResponseNotModified",
             "HttpResponseBadRequest", "HttpResponseForbidden", "HttpResponseNotFound", "HttpResponseNotAllowed",
             "HttpResponseGone", "HttpResponseServerError", "JsonResponse"]:
    cls = getattr(http, name)
    if name in ("HttpResponseRedirect", "HttpResponsePermanentRedirect"): r = cls("/new/")
    elif name == "HttpResponseNotAllowed": r = cls(["GET", "POST"])
    elif name == "JsonResponse": r = cls({"ok": True})
    else: r = cls()
    print(f"{name:32} {r.status_code}")'

Output

HttpResponse                     200
HttpResponseRedirect             302
HttpResponsePermanentRedirect    301
HttpResponseNotModified          304
HttpResponseBadRequest           400
HttpResponseForbidden            403
HttpResponseNotFound             404
HttpResponseNotAllowed           405
HttpResponseGone                 410
HttpResponseServerError          500
JsonResponse                     200

Usage

python

from django.http import Http404, HttpResponseNotAllowed, JsonResponse

def article(request, pk):
    if request.method not in ("GET", "HEAD"):
        return HttpResponseNotAllowed(["GET", "HEAD"])   # also sets the Allow header
    try:
        item = Article.objects.get(pk=pk)
    except Article.DoesNotExist:
        raise Http404("No such article")                # rendered with 404.html
    return JsonResponse({"title": item.title}, status=200)

Any other code: HttpResponse(status=429) or JsonResponse(data, status=422). django.shortcuts.get_object_or_404() combines the lookup and the Http404.

Sources

codes · httpHTTP status codes: 1xx to 5xx with meaning and common causesHTTP status codes explained: 200 and 204, the redirects 301 to 308, client errors 400 to 429 and server errors 500 to 504, each with its most common cause.config · djangoDjango ALLOWED_HOSTS: values, wildcards and DisallowedHost errorsALLOWED_HOSTS lists the host names a Django site may serve. Any other Host header raises DisallowedHost, a 400 error. Use exact names or .example.com.flags · fastapiuvicorn --reload: auto-restart FastAPI on code changesuvicorn main:app --reload restarts the server when Python files change; --reload-dir and --reload-include choose what to watch. Use it only in development.

The classes, with the status codes they send

Usage

Sources

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