Engineering · 8 min
301 vs 302 vs 307 vs 308 Redirects
Understand permanence and HTTP method preservation across redirect status codes.
Published 2026-09-03 · Updated 2026-09-18Permanence
301 and 308 indicate a permanent redirect. 302 and 307 indicate a temporary redirect. Browsers, caches and search engines may treat permanent responses more aggressively, so they should match operational intent.
Method preservation
307 and 308 require the client to preserve the request method and body. Historical behavior around 301 and 302 may convert a POST to GET. Ordinary shareable short links use GET, but API and form flows must understand the distinction.
A practical default
A manageable short link commonly starts as 302 because its destination may change. Use a permanent response only when the mapping is intentionally stable and caching consequences are understood.