.xml MIME type
XMLtext & code
application/xmlXML documents. application/xml is preferred; text/xml is an equivalent alias.
| MIME type | application/xml |
|---|---|
| Extensions | .xml |
| Also seen as | text/xml |
| Content-Type | application/xml; charset=utf-8 |
| Compress in transit? | Yes — enable gzip or Brotli |
Good to know
- RSS and Atom feeds have their own types —
application/rss+xmlandapplication/atom+xml— though many feeds are served asapplication/xml. - The encoding declared in
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="…"?>should agree with the charset in the header.
Serve .xml files with the right type
The response header to send:
Content-Type: application/xml; charset=utf-8
Most servers pick the type from the file extension. If yours sends the wrong one, map it explicitly:
nginx (inside the types block in mime.types)
application/xml xml;
Apache (.htaccess or server config)
AddType application/xml .xml
Express
res.set("Content-Type", "application/xml; charset=utf-8");Python
import mimetypes
mimetypes.add_type("application/xml", ".xml")HTML file input
<input type="file" accept=".xml,application/xml">
Check it
See what a server sends for a file, and what type a local file really is by its contents:
curl -sI https://example.com/file.xml | grep -i '^content-type:' file --mime-type file.xml
Frequently asked questions
What is the MIME type for .xml files?
application/xml. You may also see text/xml, but application/xml is the one to send.
What Content-Type header should a .xml file be served with?
Content-Type: application/xml; charset=utf-8. As a text format, include the charset so browsers don't guess the encoding. It compresses well, so let the server apply gzip or Brotli.
Related types
Headers that go with it: Content-Type · Content-Disposition · X-Content-Type-Options