Last-Modified header
The HTTP Last-Modified {{glossary("response header")}}header contains a date and time when the origin server believes the resource was last modified.
It is used as a validator in conditional requests ({{HTTPHeader("If-Modified-Since")}}Since or {{HTTPHeader("If-Unmodified-Since")}}Since) to determine if a requested resource is the same as one already stored by the client.
It is less accurate than an {{HTTPHeader("ETag")}}ETag for determining file contents, but can be used as a fallback mechanism if ETags are unavailable.
Last-Modified is also used by crawlers to adjust crawl frequency, by browsers in heuristic caching, and by content management systems (CMS) to display the time the content was last modified.
| Header type | |
|---|---|
| No | |
|
|
Yes |
Syntax
Last-Modified: <day-name>, <day> <month> <year> <hour>:<minute>:<second> GMT
Directives
<day-name>- : One of "Mon", "Tue", "Wed", "Thu", "Fri", "Sat", or "Sun" (case-sensitive).
<day>- : 2 digit day number, e.g., "04" or "23".
<month>- : One of "Jan", "Feb", "Mar", "Apr", "May", "Jun", "Jul", "Aug", "Sep", "Oct", "Nov", "Dec" (case-sensitive).
<year>- : 4 digit year number, e.g., "1990" or "2016".
<hour>- : 2 digit hour number, e.g., "09" or "23".
<minute>- : 2 digit minute number, e.g., "04" or "59".
<second>- : 2 digit second number, e.g., "04" or "59".
- GMT
- : Greenwich Mean Time. HTTP dates are always expressed in GMT, never in local time.
Examples
Last-Modified: Wed, 21 Oct 2015 07:28:00 GMT
Specifications
{{Specifications}}
Browser compatibility
{{Compat}}
See also
{{HTTPHeader("Etag")}}Etag- HTTP Conditional Requests guide
{{HTTPHeader("If-Match")}}Match,{{HTTPHeader("If-Modified-Since")}}Since,{{HTTPHeader("If-Unmodified-Since")}}Since,{{HTTPHeader("If-None-Match")}}Match conditional request headers{{HTTPStatus("304", "304 NotModified")}}Modified,{{HTTPStatus("412", "412 PreconditionFailed")}}Failed response status codes