Why is the GET method faster than POST in HTTP?

http post get
Embedd_Khurja picture Embedd_Khurja · Jul 31, 2009 · Viewed 36.9k times · Source

I am new to web programming and just curious to know about the GET and POST methods of sending data from one page to another.

It is said that the GET method is faster than POST but I don't know why. One reason I could find is that GET can take only 255 characters? Is there any other reason? Please someone explain to me.

Answer

Mehrdad Afshari picture Mehrdad Afshari · Jul 31, 2009

It's not much about speed. There are plenty of cases where POST is more applicable. For example, search engines will index GET URLs and browsers can bookmark them and make them show up in history. As a result, if you take actions like modifying a DB based on a GET request, it might be harmful as some bots might also traverse the URL.

The other case can be security issue. If you post credentials using GET, it'll get listed in browser history and server log files.

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