Redirect Chain Tracer

Trace any URL's full HTTP redirect chain, hop by hop, to its final destination — every intermediate URL, the total hop count, and the final HTTP status code. This uses the same HTTP client Crawlee's crawler runs on, so the whole chain is captured in a single request; no second fetch or manual Location-header following needed.

Features

• Full hop-by-hop chain. Every URL in the redirect sequence, from the one you submitted to the final destination, in order.
• Hop count & final status. hopCount tells you how many redirects happened; finalStatusCode is the HTTP status the final URL actually returned.
• "No redirect" is a real answer. A URL that doesn't redirect still returns a useful result — a one-URL chain with hopCount: 0.
• Deduped chain. Consecutive repeated URLs in the raw redirect data are collapsed so the chain doesn't show the same destination twice.
• Built for bulk. Feed in a list of URLs; concurrency is configurable.

How to use Redirect Chain Tracer — HTTP Redirect Path & Hop Count API

1. In the Apify Console. Open the actor page and click Start — the items field is already pre-filled with a working example. Results land in the run's dataset as soon as each item is found.
2. Via the API. Call it directly with a POST request — no Console needed once you have an API token:

   curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/accountable_eel~redirect-chain-tracer/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>" \
     -X POST \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"items":["http://github.com"]}'
   

3. On a schedule. Save this actor as an Apify Task with the input you want, then add a Schedule (hourly, daily, weekly) so it runs on its own — no server of your own required.

Input

{
  "items": ["https://example.com/old-path"],
  "maxConcurrency": 5
}

items is a list of URLs to trace. A bare hostname or path without a scheme is accepted — https:// is prepended automatically. One dataset row is returned per item. maxConcurrency controls how many requests run in parallel.

Output

One row per URL, for example:

{
  "query": "https://example.com/old-path",
  "found": true,
  "data": {
    "requestedUrl": "https://example.com/old-path",
    "finalUrl": "https://example.com/new-path",
    "hopCount": 2,
    "chain": [
      "https://example.com/old-path",
      "https://example.com/temp-redirect",
      "https://example.com/new-path"
    ],
    "finalStatusCode": 200
  },
  "scrapedAt": "2026-08-20T10:00:00.000Z"
}

Note the billing model here is different from most actors in this portfolio: a URL that returns a response — including one with no redirect at all (hopCount: 0) — is charged, because "this URL doesn't redirect" is a real, useful answer to the question being asked. Only a request that fails outright (timeout, DNS failure, connection error after retries) comes back as "found": false and free.

Use cases

• SEO redirect audits — verify that old URLs 301-redirect to the right new destination after a site migration.
• Link rot monitoring — check a list of outbound links for broken or unexpected redirect chains.
• Affiliate/tracking link verification — confirm a shortened or tracking URL actually lands on the expected final destination.
• Marketing campaign QA — trace UTM-tagged campaign links before a launch to catch misconfigured redirects.
• Site migration validation — bulk-check that every old URL in a sitemap redirects correctly to its new equivalent.

Pricing

$5 per 1,000 results, plus a $0.005 start fee. Misses (found:false) are never charged.

Use it from Clay, n8n, Make, or an AI agent

This actor runs synchronously over plain HTTP — call it directly from a script, a workflow tool, or an AI agent, no Apify Console needed once you have an API token.

curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/accountable_eel~redirect-chain-tracer/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>" \
  -X POST \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"items":["http://github.com"]}'

n8n. Add an HTTP Request node: Method POST, URL https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/accountable_eel~redirect-chain-tracer/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>, Body Content Type JSON, JSON Body {"items":["http://github.com"]} (swap in an expression from an earlier node for a real value).

Clay. Add an "HTTP API" column: Method POST, URL https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/accountable_eel~redirect-chain-tracer/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>, Body {"items":["{{value}}"]}, mapping the row's value into the items array.

MCP. In Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client with the Apify MCP server, ask for "Redirect Chain Tracer | Apify" — the agent will find and run this actor.

FAQ

Does a URL with no redirect cost anything? Yes — unlike most actors in this portfolio, "no redirect" is a valid, charged result (hopCount: 0), because you got exactly the answer you asked for.

What counts as a free miss, then? Only a request that fails outright after retries — a timeout, DNS failure, or connection error — comes back "found": false and isn't charged.

Does this follow meta-refresh or JavaScript redirects? No — it follows standard HTTP redirects (3xx responses with a Location header) via the underlying HTTP client, not client-side redirects rendered by JavaScript or <meta http-equiv="refresh"> tags.

What if I submit a bare domain without https://? It's normalized automatically — example.com becomes https://example.com before the request is made.

Can duplicate hops show up in the chain? No — consecutive repeated URLs (which can happen when the underlying redirect data already includes the final URL) are deduplicated before being returned.

Can I trace many URLs at once? Yes — pass a list of URLs and adjust maxConcurrency to control how many run in parallel.