HTTP Headers Analyzer
Parse and analyze HTTP headers with detailed explanations and security recommendations.
Advertisement
🔒 Privacy: All header parsing happens locally in your browser. Your data never leaves your device.
Paste HTTP Headers
Advertisement
How to Use the HTTP Headers Analyzer
This HTTP headers analyzer helps developers understand and debug HTTP headers from requests and responses. Simply paste the raw headers from your browser's DevTools Network tab, curl output, or any HTTP transaction, and the tool will parse and explain each header with detailed information.
The tool automatically categorizes headers into groups: General (basic metadata), Security (CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options), Caching (Cache-Control, ETag, Expires), CORS (Access-Control headers), Content (Content-Type, encoding), Authentication (Authorization, Set-Cookie), and more. Each header gets a plain-English explanation and best-practice recommendations.
Security headers are highlighted with color-coded indicators. Red warnings show missing critical security headers like Content-Security-Policy or Strict-Transport-Security. Green checkmarks indicate properly configured security measures. The tool also identifies potential issues like overly permissive CORS policies, weak cache configurations, or deprecated headers.
Use the visualization panel to see a breakdown of header categories, security score, and statistics about your headers. This is particularly useful for API debugging, security audits, performance optimization, and understanding third-party API responses. The tool supports both HTTP/1.1 and HTTP/2 header formats.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are HTTP headers and why are they important?
HTTP headers are key-value pairs sent between clients and servers that contain metadata about the request or response. They control caching, authentication, content types, security policies, CORS, and more. Understanding headers is crucial for debugging API issues, improving performance, and securing web applications.
How do I check the HTTP headers of a website?
You can check HTTP headers using browser DevTools (Network tab), command-line tools like curl, or online tools like this one. Simply paste the headers from your browser's network inspector or from a curl response, and this tool will parse and explain each header with security recommendations.
What security headers should every website have?
Essential security headers include: Content-Security-Policy (CSP) to prevent XSS attacks, X-Frame-Options to prevent clickjacking, Strict-Transport-Security (HSTS) for HTTPS enforcement, X-Content-Type-Options to prevent MIME sniffing, and Referrer-Policy to control referrer information. This tool highlights missing security headers.
What's the difference between request and response headers?
Request headers are sent by the client (browser) to the server and include information like User-Agent, Accept, Cookie, and Authorization. Response headers are sent by the server back to the client and include Set-Cookie, Cache-Control, Content-Type, and security headers. Both types are analyzed by this tool.
How can I test CORS headers?
This tool identifies CORS-related headers like Access-Control-Allow-Origin, Access-Control-Allow-Methods, and Access-Control-Allow-Headers. You can paste response headers from a cross-origin request to verify your CORS configuration is correct and troubleshoot CORS errors.
Is my header data secure when using this tool?
Yes, absolutely. All header parsing and analysis happens entirely in your browser using JavaScript. Your header data is never sent to any server or stored anywhere. This makes it safe to analyze headers containing sensitive information, though you should still avoid pasting authentication tokens.