SIP response messages (often just called SIP responses) provide status information in response to SIP request messages. All SIP response messages include a response code and a reason phrase. There are five SIP response message classes. They are described below.

There are also two types of SIP response messages, provisional and final. Final response messages convey the result of the request processing, and are sent reliably. Provisional responses provide information on the progress of the request processing, but may not be sent reliably. Provisional response messages start with 1xx and are also called informational response messages.