Difference between include directive and include action Even though both include directive and include action allows you to include the response of one JSP into another, they are quite different from each other e.g. include directive is processed at translation time and used to include the static resources e.g. HTML files, images, and CSS, etc, while the action is processed at request time and used to include more dynamic resources e.g. JSP or Servlet. What is the difference between include directive and include action is also one of the most popular JSP interview questions, mostly asked either at telephonic round or first few round of Java web developer interviews? Let's see a couple of more differences between these two to answer this question in more detail. Btw, if you are new in JSP and just learning and preparing for interviews at the same time, then you should also look at Head First Servlet and JSP, one of the best books to learn and prepare for Servlet JSP interviews and certification at the same time. JSP include directive vs include action The include directive is one the three directive supported by JSP e.g. @taglib, @include and @page, while the include action is one of the many standard actions supported by JSP i.e. , , , , ,