HTTP 308 Permanent Redirect

What 308 means

Where 308s come from

• Next.js trailing slash handling: /about/ redirects to /about (or the reverse with trailingSlash: true) with a 308.
• permanent: true redirects in next.config, or permanentRedirect().
• HTTP to HTTPS redirects on hosting platforms and CDNs that prefer method-preserving redirects.
• API versioning: POST /v1/orders permanently moved to /v2/orders without breaking clients that POST.
• Redirect loops (ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS) when a proxy terminates TLS and the app, which sees plain HTTP, keeps redirecting to HTTPS. Fix it by trusting X-Forwarded-Proto.

How to set up a 308

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com;
    return 308 https://example.com$request_uri;
}

# Keep POST/PUT bodies intact for API clients
location ~ ^/api/v1/(.*)$ {
    return 308 /api/v2/$1$is_args$args;
}

app.set('trust proxy', 1); // read X-Forwarded-Proto from the load balancer

app.use((req, res, next) => {
  if (req.secure) return next();
  res.redirect(308, `https://${req.headers.host}${req.originalUrl}`);
});

// next.config.ts
const nextConfig = {
  async redirects() {
    return [{ source: '/docs/:path*', destination: '/guides/:path*', permanent: true }];
  },
};
export default nextConfig;

curl -sIL http://example.com/docs/setup | grep -iE '^(HTTP|location)'

Headers that matter with 308

Location

The new permanent URL.

Cache-Control

Like 301, a 308 may be cached indefinitely without it. Use a short max-age while testing.

308 vs similar status codes

• 301 Moved Permanently: Same meaning, but browsers turn POST into GET. Equivalent for normal page moves.
• 307 Temporary Redirect: The temporary, method-preserving counterpart.
• 302 Found: Temporary and may change the method. The least precise of the four.

SEO impact of 308

Google treats 308 the same as 301: a strong signal that the target is the canonical URL, with ranking signals consolidated there. The usual redirect rules apply: one hop, the closest equivalent page, keep it for at least a year, and update internal links and sitemaps.

Related status codes

Looking for another code? Search the full HTTP status codes list, or read which code your API should return in the REST API status codes guide.

Learn more

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Frequently Asked Questions