From eca5fd1dfdc614c2df876cc32018a7d71f84ea82 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: David Lord <davidism@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2026 16:50:54 -0800
Subject: [PATCH] redirect defaults to 303

---
 CHANGES.rst             | 5 +++++
 docs/api.rst            | 2 +-
 src/flask/helpers.py    | 5 ++++-
 src/flask/sansio/app.py | 5 ++++-
 4 files changed, 14 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/CHANGES.rst b/CHANGES.rst
index efd076e9..686ff02f 100644
--- a/CHANGES.rst
+++ b/CHANGES.rst
@@ -16,6 +16,11 @@ Unreleased
     deprecation period. :issue:`5815`
 -   ``template_filter``, ``template_test``, and ``template_global`` decorators
     can be used without parentheses. :issue:`5729`
+-   ``redirect`` returns a ``303`` status code by default instead of ``302``.
+    This tells the client to always switch to ``GET``, rather than only
+    switching ``POST`` to ``GET``. This preserves the current behavior of
+    ``GET`` and ``POST`` redirects, and is also correct for frontend libraries
+    such as HTMX. :issue:`5895`
 
 
 Version 3.1.2
diff --git a/docs/api.rst b/docs/api.rst
index d3c517f1..52b25376 100644
--- a/docs/api.rst
+++ b/docs/api.rst
@@ -596,7 +596,7 @@ This specifies that ``/users/`` will be the URL for page one and
 ``/users/page/N`` will be the URL for page ``N``.
 
 If a URL contains a default value, it will be redirected to its simpler
-form with a 301 redirect. In the above example, ``/users/page/1`` will
+form with a 308 redirect. In the above example, ``/users/page/1`` will
 be redirected to ``/users/``. If your route handles ``GET`` and ``POST``
 requests, make sure the default route only handles ``GET``, as redirects
 can't preserve form data. ::
diff --git a/src/flask/helpers.py b/src/flask/helpers.py
index 31167c2b..3b65664a 100644
--- a/src/flask/helpers.py
+++ b/src/flask/helpers.py
@@ -239,7 +239,7 @@ def url_for(
 
 
 def redirect(
-    location: str, code: int = 302, Response: type[BaseResponse] | None = None
+    location: str, code: int = 303, Response: type[BaseResponse] | None = None
 ) -> BaseResponse:
     """Create a redirect response object.
 
@@ -252,6 +252,9 @@ def redirect(
     :param Response: The response class to use. Not used when
         ``current_app`` is active, which uses ``app.response_class``.
 
+    .. versionchanged:: 3.2
+        ``code`` defaults to ``303`` instead of ``302``.
+
     .. versionadded:: 2.2
         Calls ``current_app.redirect`` if available instead of always
         using Werkzeug's default ``redirect``.
diff --git a/src/flask/sansio/app.py b/src/flask/sansio/app.py
index 43d20529..82349dae 100644
--- a/src/flask/sansio/app.py
+++ b/src/flask/sansio/app.py
@@ -932,7 +932,7 @@ class App(Scaffold):
         """
         return False
 
-    def redirect(self, location: str, code: int = 302) -> BaseResponse:
+    def redirect(self, location: str, code: int = 303) -> BaseResponse:
         """Create a redirect response object.
 
         This is called by :func:`flask.redirect`, and can be called
@@ -941,6 +941,9 @@ class App(Scaffold):
         :param location: The URL to redirect to.
         :param code: The status code for the redirect.
 
+        .. versionchanged:: 3.2
+            ``code`` defaults to ``303`` instead of ``302``.
+
         .. versionadded:: 2.2
             Moved from ``flask.redirect``, which calls this method.
         """