202 Accepted

HTTP 202 Accepted means the request was valid and queued, but the actual work happens asynchronously. Used for long-running jobs where the client should poll a status endpoint.

Async APIs, batch operations, or workflows that take longer than acceptable for a synchronous response.

• Background job queued (video transcoding, report generation)
• Bulk import job started
• Webhook payload accepted for retry-safe processing

• Not an error — confirms async acceptance
• Return a Location header pointing to a job-status endpoint
• Document the polling cadence in your API docs

HTTP/1.1 202 Accepted
Location: /api/jobs/abc-123
Content-Type: application/json