308 Permanent Redirect

Same as 301 but the request method and body must be preserved when following the redirect.

Status

HTTP/1.1 308 Permanent Redirect

Details

Category: 3xx
Status: Standard. Registered with IANA and defined by a current standards-track RFC.
Specification: RFC 9110 §15.4.9, RFC 7538: Original definition
Cacheable: Cacheable by default
Response body: Allowed
Retry: Safe to retry

308 is the method-preserving permanent redirect. Like 301 it tells clients and search engines to update their references, and like 307 it forbids rewriting a POST into a GET.

For API migrations it is the correct permanent code: callers update their base URL and their write requests keep working through the transition. For plain page moves 301 remains the more widely understood option, and both pass ranking signals.

Headers

Location: Required. The new permanent URL, to be requested with the original method.

Common causes

An API moved to a new host or path permanently.
A canonical HTTPS or host redirect configured to preserve methods.

Usage notes

For clients

Update the stored base URL and replay the original method against the new location.
Confirm the client library follows 308 for non-GET methods. Older versions of several HTTP clients did not.

For servers

Prefer 308 over 301 for endpoints that accept POST, PUT, PATCH, or DELETE.
Keep the redirect in place long enough for cached clients and integrations to migrate.

Examples

Moving an API endpoint permanently

HTTP request

PUT /v1/items/44 HTTP/1.1
Host: old-api.example.com
Content-Type: application/json

{"name":"widget"}

HTTP response

HTTP/1.1 308 Permanent Redirect
Location: https://api.example.com/v1/items/44

Browser compatibility

Chrome: since 36
Edge: since 12
Firefox: since 14
Opera: since 24
Safari: since 7

Specifications

RFC 9110 §15.4.9
RFC 7538: Original definition