Is it possible to use POST to retrieve data?

Yes, POST can be used to retrieve data, although this is not a typical approach. The HTTP GET method is intended for retrieving data and is usually used for requests without side effects. However, if a request requires transmitting a large volume of data or complex parameters that are inconvenient or impossible to pass through the URL (for example, filters, complex objects), then POST can be used to retrieve data.

Example: a request with filters in the body of a POST request to get a list of users.

POST /api/users/filter HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "age": {"gte": 18},
  "status": "active"
}

It is important to understand that using POST to retrieve data can affect caching and the semantics of HTTP, so this approach should be used consciously.