application/xml

The generic label for XML when nothing more specific fits — and a specific +xml type usually does fit, which is the first thing to check before reaching for it. Since RFC 7303 the document's own encoding declaration is authoritative, and the old charset confusion that plagued text/xml is history. Use it for ad-hoc XML payloads, XSLT, and schemas; use a registered subtype for feeds, SVG, and anything else that has one of its own.

.xml is shared with text/xml; the schema-family extensions (.xsd, .xsl, .rng) map here.

Defined by RFC 7303 · IANA registration. Registry facts from the IANA media-types registry via mime-db.