Is it okay for a REST API to always return HTTP 200, even when there's an error?

deeksha Oberoi — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 17:01:31 +0000

I'm currently building a REST API using Node.js and came across something that's been bothering me a bit — error handling conventions.

I've noticed that some APIs always return HTTP 200 OK, even in cases where there's clearly an error, and they just include an error message in the JSON response body like this:

{
"success": false,
"message": "Invalid input"
}
On the other hand, many APIs use proper HTTP status codes, like:

400 for bad requests
401 for unauthorized
403 for forbidden
404 for not found
500 for internal server errors

My questions:

Is it considered bad practice to always return 200 OK, even for failures?
Should I stick to proper HTTP status codes for different error scenarios? In Node.js/Express, what’s the recommended approach:

res.status(200).json({ success: false })

or res.status(400).json({ message: "Bad request" })?

I really want to follow clean, standard, and developer-friendly practices, so that front-end or client developers consuming the API have clear expectations.

Would love to hear your thoughts, experiences, or any industry standards/patterns you follow

Thanks in advance!

DEV Community: deeksha Oberoi

Is it okay for a REST API to always return HTTP 200, even when there's an error?