MIME Types Reference
Common MIME (media) types by category — text, application, image, audio, video and fonts — with the file extension each maps to.
A MIME type (media type) is the value that goes in a Content-Type header to tell software how to read a file. This reference lists the types you meet most often, grouped by category, with the file extension each one usually maps to.
Text
| MIME type | Extension | Description |
|---|---|---|
text/plain | .txt | Plain text |
text/html | .html | HTML document |
text/css | .css | Cascading Style Sheets |
text/csv | .csv | Comma-separated values |
text/markdown | .md | Markdown |
text/calendar | .ics | iCalendar |
Application
| MIME type | Extension | Description |
|---|---|---|
application/json | .json | JSON data |
application/ld+json | .jsonld | JSON-LD (linked data) |
application/xml | .xml | XML data |
application/javascript | .js | JavaScript |
application/pdf | .pdf | PDF document |
application/zip | .zip | ZIP archive |
application/gzip | .gz | Gzip-compressed file |
application/octet-stream | .bin | Arbitrary binary data (download) |
application/x-www-form-urlencoded | — | URL-encoded form submission |
application/wasm | .wasm | WebAssembly module |
application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet | .xlsx | Excel spreadsheet |
application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document | .docx | Word document |
Image
| MIME type | Extension | Description |
|---|---|---|
image/png | .png | PNG image |
image/jpeg | .jpg | JPEG image |
image/gif | .gif | GIF image |
image/webp | .webp | WebP image |
image/avif | .avif | AVIF image |
image/svg+xml | .svg | SVG vector image |
image/x-icon | .ico | Icon (favicon) |
Audio & video
| MIME type | Extension | Description |
|---|---|---|
audio/mpeg | .mp3 | MP3 audio |
audio/wav | .wav | WAV audio |
audio/ogg | .ogg | Ogg audio |
video/mp4 | .mp4 | MP4 video |
video/webm | .webm | WebM video |
video/ogg | .ogv | Ogg video |
Fonts & multipart
| MIME type | Extension | Description |
|---|---|---|
font/woff2 | .woff2 | WOFF 2.0 web font |
font/woff | .woff | WOFF web font |
font/ttf | .ttf | TrueType font |
font/otf | .otf | OpenType font |
multipart/form-data | — | Form submission with file uploads |
Commonly confused, explained
File uploads and downloads
Office files are ZIP containers but need their own specific types, or applications will not open them correctly. Use application/octet-stream only when nothing more specific applies, and pair downloads with a Content-Disposition header to control the file name. On the upload side, validate the file's content, not the type the client claims.
APIs and data formats
application/json is the default for APIs, application/ld+json is JSON for linked data, and application/xml covers XML. Forms use application/x-www-form-urlencoded, or multipart/form-data when they upload files. A body whose Content-Type does not match its format is a frequent cause of 400 and 415 errors.
Web assets
Browsers enforce the type for scripts and styles, especially with X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff, so serve JavaScript, CSS and WebAssembly with their exact types. Images and fonts have modern formats that give much smaller files.
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