---
title: "101 Switching Protocols"
canonical: "https://lemwatch.com/http-status-codes/101"
category: "informational"
last_verified: "2026-08-11"
source: "https://lemwatch.com"
---

# HTTP 101 Switching Protocols

**Summary** — The server is switching to a different protocol as requested by the client.

## What it means

HTTP 101 Switching Protocols indicates that the server understands and is willing to comply with the client's request to switch communication protocols. The most common use case is upgrading from HTTP to WebSocket.

## Common causes

- WebSocket connection upgrade
- HTTP/2 upgrade from HTTP/1.1
- TLS upgrade via Upgrade header

## How to fix

- This is expected behaviour for WebSocket connections
- If WebSocket connections are failing, check your proxy/load balancer configuration

## SEO impact

No SEO impact. Protocol upgrades happen at the transport layer.

## Monitoring tip

If your site uses WebSockets, LemWatch can monitor both the initial HTTP handshake and the WebSocket connection health.

**Related:** [100](https://lemwatch.com/http-status-codes/100.md), [200](https://lemwatch.com/http-status-codes/200.md)

_Canonical HTML page: https://lemwatch.com/http-status-codes/101_