201 Created

Success: the request was received, understood and accepted.

When a server should send it. When a POST or PUT has created a new resource. Name it in a Location header so the client knows where it lives, and return a representation of it or a short description in the body.

Common causes. A POST or PUT to an API that creates a record.

What to do. Read the Location header for the address of the new resource.

Browsers and HTTP clients. Browsers treat it like 200 and render any body. API clients read the Location header for the new record; fetch() reports it with response.ok true.

Google Search. Googlebot waits a limited time for the content, then passes on whatever it received for indexing. Source: Google Search Central, How HTTP status codes, and network and DNS errors affect Google Search.

Caching. Not cacheable by default (RFC 9110 section 15.1 does not list it). A cache stores it only when the response says so with Cache-Control or Expires.

HTTP/1.1 201 Created
Location: /api/orders/1042
Content-Type: application/json

{"status": 201, "title": "Created"}

location /example {
    add_header Location '/api/orders/1042' always;
    return 201 'Created';
}

header('Location: /api/orders/1042');
http_response_code(201);
echo 'Created';
exit;

res.writeHead(201, { 'Location': '/api/orders/1042', 'Content-Type': 'text/plain' });
res.end('Created');

# in a view function
return 'Created', 201, {'Location': '/api/orders/1042'}