4xx Client Errors

HTTP 410 Gone

The resource has been permanently removed and will not be available again.

When is 410 used?

  • Deprecated API endpoints
  • Intentionally deleted content
  • Search engine de-indexing

How to handle a 410 response

Inspect the request — URL, method, headers, credentials, and body. Retrying the same request unchanged will usually fail again; 429 is the exception, where you should wait for the Retry-After period.

Check the status code a URL returns from the command line:

curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}\n" https://example.com

How to return 410 from your server

Node.js (Express)

res.status(410).json({ message: 'Gone' });

Python (Flask)

return {"message": "Gone"}, 410

Go (net/http)

w.WriteHeader(410)

Frequently Asked Questions

What does HTTP 410 mean?

410 Gone: The resource has been permanently removed and will not be available again.

Is 410 an error?

Yes. 410 is in the 4xx Client Errors class. Client errors: the request is malformed, unauthorized, or targets something that does not exist.