REST APIs can return the resource representations in a variety of formats (XML, JSON, HTML, and text). Resource representations can be compressed to save network bandwidth and storage requirements. There are different transmission protocols that enable compression, and clients are accordingly notified about the compression algorithm used.

Hypermedia as the Engine of Application State (HATEOAS) is an important constraint of the REST paradigm. The term hypermedia refers to the links that point to various types of multimedia content (images, videos, audios, or text). This architectural style helps to use hypermedia links in the response message so that clients can dynamically go to the correct resource.