Accepted

Overview

202 Accepted means the request has been accepted for processing but is not yet complete. The server uses it when it queues the request or hands it to an asynchronous worker and wants to respond immediately without waiting for the outcome.

Because success is not yet determined at response time, the server usually provides a status/job URL (via Location or the body) that the client can poll.

When it happens

• Use it to acknowledge long-running work handed to a background worker — report generation, large file conversion, bulk email sends.
• It is also common on event-ingestion endpoints that push an event onto a message queue and return right away.

Request / Response example

POST /api/reports HTTP/1.1
Host: api.example.com
Content-Type: application/json

{"type":"monthly","month":"2026-07"}

HTTP/1.1 202 Accepted
Location: /api/jobs/8f2a
Content-Type: application/json

{"jobId":"8f2a","status":"queued"}

In code

app.post('/api/reports', (req, res) => {
  const jobId = queue.enqueue(req.body);
  res.status(202).location(`/api/jobs/${jobId}`).json({ jobId, status: 'queued' });
});

@app.post('/api/reports')
def report():
    job = queue.enqueue(build_report, request.json)
    return {'jobId': job.id, 'status': 'queued'}, 202

Notes

• 202 means "accepted," not "succeeded," so the client must confirm the eventual result via polling or a webhook since the job can still fail.
• For work that completes synchronously, 200 or 201 is clearer than 202.
• To reduce polling load, the status endpoint can return Retry-After to suggest how long to wait before checking again.

Related status codes

Related headers

Specification