A MIME type (also called a media type or content type) is a two-part label like text/html or image/png that tells software what kind of data a file or HTTP body contains. The first part is the top-level type and the second is the subtype.

Why does Content-Type matter for the web?

Browsers and servers use the Content-Type header to decide how to handle a response — render HTML, display an image, or trigger a download. A wrong type can cause a file to display as text, fail to load, or be blocked by content-sniffing protections.

What is the charset parameter on text types?

Text media types often carry a charset parameter, such as text/html; charset=utf-8, that declares the character encoding. Modern web content should almost always use utf-8 so that non-ASCII characters render correctly.

Are vendor and structured-suffix types covered?

Yes. The list includes common structured suffixes like application/ld+json and vendor types such as application/vnd.ms-excel, which use the +suffix and vnd. conventions defined by the media-type registration rules.

Is my search sent anywhere?

No. The entire media-type list ships with the page and all searching happens in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.

MIME Types Lookup — Gera Tools

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Look up the right Content-Type, fast

Every file served over HTTP needs a correct media type — the Content-Type header that tells the browser whether to render, play, or download it. This tool lets you search a curated list of common IANA media types by file extension (png, .json, csv) or by any part of the type string (image/, pdf, +json), and copy the exact value with one click.

How it works

The page ships with a list of media-type entries, each holding the canonical type (such as application/json), its common file extensions, a human label, and its top-level category (text, image, audio, video, application, font, multipart). Your query is normalised — a leading dot is stripped and the text is lower-cased — and then matched against the type string, the extensions, and the label. Matches are grouped so an extension search like xls surfaces both the legacy application/vnd.ms-excel and the modern application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet types.

Tips and notes

Always send charset=utf-8 on text types so non-ASCII characters render. When serving JSON use application/json, and for JSON-LD use application/ld+json so structured-data parsers pick it up. For unknown binary data the safe default is application/octet-stream, which prompts a download rather than inline rendering. If a browser ignores your declared type, check that you are not sending X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff together with a mismatched Content-Type. This list covers the common cases; the full IANA registry is the authoritative source for rare or newly registered types.