> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/fastapi/fastapi/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# HTMLResponse
> Response class for returning HTML content with text/html media type
`HTMLResponse` is a response class for returning HTML content. It sets the appropriate `text/html` content type header.
## Import
```python theme={null}
from fastapi.responses import HTMLResponse
```
## Class Signature
```python theme={null}
class HTMLResponse(Response):
media_type = "text/html"
```
## Constructor Parameters
The HTML content to return. Can be a string or bytes.
The HTTP status code for the response.
Additional HTTP headers to include in the response.
Override the default media type. If not provided, uses `text/html; charset=utf-8`.
Background task to run after returning the response.
## Usage
### Using response\_class
Specify `HTMLResponse` as the response class and return HTML as a string:
```python theme={null}
from fastapi import FastAPI
from fastapi.responses import HTMLResponse
app = FastAPI()
@app.get("/items/", response_class=HTMLResponse)
async def read_items():
return """
Some HTML in here
Look ma! HTML!
"""
```
### Direct HTMLResponse
Return an `HTMLResponse` object directly:
```python theme={null}
from fastapi import FastAPI
from fastapi.responses import HTMLResponse
app = FastAPI()
@app.get("/items/")
async def read_items():
html_content = """
Some HTML in here
Look ma! HTML!
"""
return HTMLResponse(content=html_content, status_code=200)
```
### With Custom Headers
```python theme={null}
from fastapi import FastAPI
from fastapi.responses import HTMLResponse
app = FastAPI()
@app.get("/")
async def root():
return HTMLResponse(
content="Hello World
",
headers={"X-Custom-Header": "value"}
)
```
### Default Response Class
Set `HTMLResponse` as the default for all endpoints:
```python theme={null}
from fastapi import FastAPI
from fastapi.responses import HTMLResponse
app = FastAPI(default_response_class=HTMLResponse)
@app.get("/items/")
async def read_items():
return "Items
This is a list of items.
"
```
## Properties
### media\_type
The media type for HTML responses:
```python theme={null}
HTMLResponse.media_type # "text/html"
```
The actual Content-Type header will be `text/html; charset=utf-8`.
## Notes
* HTML content should be valid HTML markup
* The charset is automatically set to UTF-8
* Use this response class when building server-rendered pages or HTML fragments
* For modern applications, consider using templating engines like Jinja2 with FastAPI
## Related
* [JSONResponse](/api/responses/json-response) - For returning JSON data
* [PlainTextResponse](/api/responses/plain-text-response) - For plain text content
* [Templates](https://fastapi.tiangolo.com/advanced/templates/) - Using Jinja2 templates