diff --git a/Lib/http/client.py b/Lib/http/client.py
index fe67d0f7963f78..201123930da00f 100644
--- a/Lib/http/client.py
+++ b/Lib/http/client.py
@@ -351,12 +351,15 @@ def begin(self, *, _max_headers=None):
         # for _read_and_discard_trailer() to enforce.
         self._max_headers = _max_headers
 
-        # read until we get a non-100 response
+        # read until we get a final response, skipping 1xx (informational)
+        # responses such as "100 Continue" or "103 Early Hints".
+        # "101 Switching Protocols" is returned to the caller since it ends
+        # the HTTP/1.1 exchange on this connection.
         for _ in range(_MAXINTERIMRESPONSES):
             version, status, reason = self._read_status()
-            if status != CONTINUE:
+            if not 100 <= status < 200 or status == SWITCHING_PROTOCOLS:
                 break
-            # skip the header from the 100 response
+            # skip the header from the 1xx response
             skipped_headers = _read_headers(self.fp, _max_headers)
             if self.debuglevel > 0:
                 print("headers:", skipped_headers)
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_httplib.py b/Lib/test/test_httplib.py
index 1e5ec0d4e43c27..0964a6b08fa47f 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_httplib.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_httplib.py
@@ -1479,6 +1479,46 @@ def test_multiple_interim_responses(self):
         self.assertEqual(resp.read(), b'hello')
         resp.close()
 
+    def test_informational_responses(self):
+        # gh-72756: every 1xx response other than "101 Switching Protocols"
+        # is an interim response and must be skipped, like "100 Continue".
+        for interim in ('102 Processing', '103 Early Hints', '199 Unknown',
+                        '103 Early Hints\r\n\r\nHTTP/1.1 100 Continue'):
+            with self.subTest(interim=interim):
+                body = (
+                    f'HTTP/1.1 {interim}\r\n'
+                    'Link: </style.css>; rel=preload; as=style\r\n'
+                    '\r\n'
+                    'HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\n'
+                    'Content-Length: 5\r\n'
+                    '\r\n'
+                    'hello'
+                )
+                resp = client.HTTPResponse(FakeSocket(body), method="GET")
+                resp.begin()
+                self.assertEqual(resp.status, 200)
+                self.assertEqual(resp.reason, 'OK')
+                self.assertIsNone(resp.getheader('Link'))
+                self.assertEqual(resp.read(), b'hello')
+                resp.close()
+
+    def test_switching_protocols_response(self):
+        # "101 Switching Protocols" ends the HTTP/1.1 exchange, so it is
+        # returned to the caller instead of being skipped.
+        body = (
+            'HTTP/1.1 101 Switching Protocols\r\n'
+            'Upgrade: websocket\r\n'
+            'Connection: Upgrade\r\n'
+            '\r\n'
+            'not HTTP'
+        )
+        resp = client.HTTPResponse(FakeSocket(body), method="GET")
+        resp.begin()
+        self.assertEqual(resp.status, 101)
+        self.assertEqual(resp.getheader('Upgrade'), 'websocket')
+        self.assertEqual(resp.read(), b'')
+        resp.close()
+
     def test_overflowing_chunked_line(self):
         body = (
             'HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\n'
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_httpservers.py b/Lib/test/test_httpservers.py
index c82084ce299d77..3c5e08a3821321 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_httpservers.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_httpservers.py
@@ -329,7 +329,7 @@ def test_send_error(self):
         allow_transfer_encoding_codes = (HTTPStatus.NOT_MODIFIED,
                                          HTTPStatus.RESET_CONTENT)
         for code in (HTTPStatus.NO_CONTENT, HTTPStatus.NOT_MODIFIED,
-                     HTTPStatus.PROCESSING, HTTPStatus.RESET_CONTENT,
+                     HTTPStatus.RESET_CONTENT,
                      HTTPStatus.SWITCHING_PROTOCOLS):
             self.con.request('SEND_ERROR', '/{}'.format(code))
             res = self.con.getresponse()
@@ -342,6 +342,23 @@ def test_send_error(self):
             data = res.read()
             self.assertEqual(b'', data)
 
+    def test_send_error_informational(self):
+        # http.client skips 1xx (informational) responses other than
+        # "101 Switching Protocols", so read this one from the socket.
+        self.con.close()
+        with socket.create_connection((self.HOST, self.PORT)) as sock:
+            sock.sendall(b'SEND_ERROR /102 HTTP/1.1\r\n\r\n')
+            response = b''.join(iter(lambda: sock.recv(1024), b''))
+        head, sep, data = response.partition(b'\r\n\r\n')
+        self.assertEqual(sep, b'\r\n\r\n')
+        status_line, *header_lines = head.split(b'\r\n')
+        self.assertStartsWith(status_line, b'HTTP/1.1 102 ')
+        names = [line.partition(b':')[0].lower() for line in header_lines]
+        self.assertNotIn(b'content-length', names)
+        self.assertNotIn(b'content-type', names)
+        self.assertNotIn(b'transfer-encoding', names)
+        self.assertEqual(b'', data)
+
     def test_head_via_send_error(self):
         allow_transfer_encoding_codes = (HTTPStatus.NOT_MODIFIED,
                                          HTTPStatus.RESET_CONTENT)
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2026-11-01-11-58-06.gh-issue-72756.6qU4Wg.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2026-11-01-11-58-06.gh-issue-72756.6qU4Wg.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..706ec59278a0d4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2026-11-01-11-58-06.gh-issue-72756.6qU4Wg.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+Fix :mod:`http.client` returning a 1xx informational response such as
+``103 Early Hints`` as the final response. All 1xx responses except
+``101 Switching Protocols`` are now skipped, like ``100 Continue``.