MIME Types
Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is an Internet standard that extends the format of email messages to support text in character sets other than ASCII, as well as attachments of audio, video, images, and application programs.
The following two important MIME types are the default types:
text/plainis the default value for textual files. A textual file should be human-readable and must not contain binary data.application/octet-streamis the default value for all other cases. An unknown file type should use this type. Browsers are particularly careful when manipulating these files to protect users from software vulnerabilities and possible dangerous behavior.
IANA is the official registry of MIME media types and maintains a list of all the official MIME types. This table lists important MIME types for the Web:
| Extension | Kind of Document | MIME Type |
|---|---|---|
| .aac | AAC audio | audio/aac |
| .abw | AbiWord document | application/x-abiword |
| .arc | Archive document (multiple files embedded) | application/x-freearc |
| .avif | AVIF image | image/avif |
| .avi | AVI: Audio Video Interleave | video/x-msvideo |
| .azw | Amazon Kindle eBook format | application/vnd.amazon.ebook |
| .bin | Any kind of binary data | application/octet-stream |
| .bmp | Windows OS/2 Bitmap Graphics | image/bmp |
| .bz | BZip archive | application/x-bzip |
| .bz2 | BZip2 archive | application/x-bzip2 |
| .cda | CD audio | application/x-cdf |
| .csh | C-Shell script | application/x-csh |
| .css | Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) | text/css |
| .csv | Comma-separated values (CSV) | text/csv |
| .doc | Microsoft Word | application/msword |
| .docx | Microsoft Word (OpenXML) | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| .eot | MS Embedded OpenType fonts | application/vnd.ms-fontobject |
| .epub | Electronic publication (EPUB) | application/epub+zip |
| .gz | GZip Compressed Archive | application/gzip |
| .gif | Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) | image/gif |
| .htm, .html | HyperText Markup Language (HTML) | text/html |
| .ico | Icon format | image/vnd.microsoft.icon |
| .ics | iCalendar format | text/calendar |
| .jar | Java Archive (JAR) | application/java-archive |
| .jpeg, .jpg | JPEG images | image/jpeg |
| .js | JavaScript | text/javascript (Specifications: HTML and RFC 9239) |
| .json | JSON format | application/json |
| .jsonld | JSON-LD format | application/ld+json |
| .mid, .midi | Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) | audio/midi, audio/x-midi |
| .mjs | JavaScript module | text/javascript |
| .mp3 | MP3 audio | audio/mpeg |
| .mp4 | MP4 video | video/mp4 |
| .mpeg | MPEG Video | video/mpeg |
| .mpkg | Apple Installer Package | application/vnd.apple.installer+xml |
| .odp | OpenDocument presentation document | application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.presentation |
| .ods | OpenDocument spreadsheet document | application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet |
| .odt | OpenDocument text document | application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text |
| .oga | OGG audio | audio/ogg |
| .ogv | OGG video | video/ogg |
| .ogx | OGG | application/ogg |
| .opus | Opus audio | audio/opus |
| .otf | OpenType font | font/otf |
| .png | Portable Network Graphics | image/png |
| Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) | application/pdf | |
| .php | Hypertext Preprocessor (Personal Home Page) | application/x-httpd-php |
| .ppt | Microsoft PowerPoint | application/vnd.ms-powerpoint |
| .pptx | Microsoft PowerPoint (OpenXML) | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation |
| .rar | RAR archive | application/vnd.rar |
| .rtf | Rich Text Format (RTF) | application/rtf |
| .sh | Bourne shell script | application/x-sh |
| .svg | Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) | image/svg+xml |
| .tar | Tape Archive (TAR) | application/x-tar |
| .tif, .tiff | Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) | image/tiff |
| .ts | MPEG transport stream | video/mp2t |
| .ttf | TrueType Font | font/ttf |
| .txt | Text, (generally ASCII or ISO 8859-n) | text/plain |
| .vsd | Microsoft Visio | application/vnd.visio |
| .wav | Waveform Audio Format | audio/wav |
| .weba | WEBM audio | audio/webm |
| .webm | WEBM video | video/webm |
| .webp | WEBP image | image/webp |
| .woff | Web Open Font Format (WOFF) | font/woff |
| .woff2 | Web Open Font Format (WOFF) | font/woff2 |
| .xhtml | XHTML | application/xhtml+xml |
| .xls | Microsoft Excel | application/vnd.ms-excel |
| .xlsx | Microsoft Excel (OpenXML) | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet |
| .xml | XML | application/xml (recommended as of RFC 7303, but text/xml is still used sometimes) |
| .xul | XUL | application/vnd.mozilla.xul+xml |
| .zip | ZIP archive | application/zip |
| .3gp | 3GPP audio/video container | video/3gpp; audio/3gpp if it doesn’t contain video |
| .3g2 | 3GPP2 audio/video container | video/3gpp2; audio/3gpp2 if it doesn’t contain video |
| .7z | 7-zip archive | application/x-7z-compressed |