This is the way how Apache reads the requests. The only immediate redirect before reading the whole requests if conditions for redirect don't depend on data in request (header/body), but only IP or hostname. If Apache would read headers only first, runs the RuleRewrite and then only reads body , it would work, however I am not that good at C/C++ to provide a patch to Apache. At least your application (PHP/CGI or whatever behind) doesn't take the hit