Redirect Checker & Bulk URL Status: Chains, Loops, 301 Map QA

Answer first: this actor is a bulk redirect checker and HTTP status code checker for SEO, site migrations and link cleanup. Give it a list of URLs, old → new pairs, a redirect map CSV (paste it, or a Google Sheets / Drive / Dropbox link) or a sitemap. It follows every hop itself (301, 302, 303, 307, 308 and meta refresh), records the status and Location of each one, and gives every URL a verdict and a one-line fix: REDIRECT_CHAIN, LOOP, TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS, TEMPORARY_REDIRECT (302 where a 301 belongs), BROKEN_4XX, SERVER_ERROR, SOFT_404, REDIRECTS_TO_HOMEPAGE, TARGET_NOINDEX, MAP_MISMATCH / NOT_REDIRECTED (the redirect doesn't land where your map says), HTTPS_TO_HTTP, SSL_ERROR, DNS_ERROR and more. It also writes a fix list CSV and a flattened redirects CSV (source → final URL for every chain, ready for your redirect rules). The first 20 URLs of every run are free, then $0.0008 per URL ($0.80 per 1,000). URLs that block the checker (401/403/429 or a bot challenge), invalid lines and duplicates are never billed.

Quick facts
Best for	Site migration QA (old → new redirect maps), redirect chain and loop cleanup, broken link / 404 checks, HTTP → HTTPS and www checks, checking old sitemaps or backlink targets after a relaunch
Input	URLs (one per line), old new pairs with optional expected status (410), a redirect map CSV (pasted or by link), or a sitemap URL
Output	One row per URL: verdict, severity, chainText (e.g. 301 → 302 → 200), hops, finalStatus, finalUrl, expectedUrl, matchesExpected, issues[], fix, finalTitle, finalRobots, finalCanonical, chain[] (every hop with status, Location and time) + FIX_LIST.csv, FLATTENED_REDIRECTS.csv, SUMMARY
Price	First 20 URLs free every run, then $0.0008 per URL checked. No start fee. Same price with the final-page check on or off
Needs	No API keys, no proxies, no login. Plain HTTP requests, max 4 at a time per host
Not included	JavaScript (window.location) redirects, crawling a whole site for links (use our Internal Link Audit for that), rank tracking

Try it now: the input is prefilled with 4 lines, so the first run is free.

Sample output (real run, 20 Oct 2026)

Build 0.1.2, run zMx0ss7vuq6Ngmrui, 15 input lines (3 of them old → new pairs), finished in about 8 seconds. All 15 were within the 20 free URLs, so the run cost $0. Full public dataset: JSON · CSV · FIX_LIST.csv

URL checked	Verdict	Status chain	Lands on
support.google.com/webmasters/answer/93633	REDIRECT_CHAIN	301 → 301 → 200	developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/301-redirects
docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/	REDIRECT_CHAIN + TEMPORARY_REDIRECT	301 → 302 → 200	docs.apify.com/actors/running
http://wikipedia.org	REDIRECT_CHAIN	301 → 301 → 200	https://www.wikipedia.org/
httpbin.org/redirect/3	REDIRECT_CHAIN + TEMPORARY_REDIRECT	302 → 302 → 302 → 200	httpbin.org/get
developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/crawling/301-redirects	REDIRECT_OK	301 → 200	…/search/docs/crawling-indexing/301-redirects
twitter.com/apify → expected x.com/apify	MAP_OK	301 → 200	https://x.com/apify
http://github.com/about → expected https://github.com/about	MAP_OK	301 → 200	https://github.com/about
http://apify.com/store → expected apify.com/pricing (deliberately wrong)	MAP_MISMATCH	301 → 200	https://apify.com/store
http://bing.com	REDIRECT_OK + HTTP_FINAL, CANONICAL_ELSEWHERE	301 → 200	http://www.bing.com/ (canonical says https)
httpbin.org/status/404	BROKEN_4XX	404	–
expired.badssl.com	SSL_ERROR	–	CERT_HAS_EXPIRED: certificate has expired
http://localhost:8080/x	PRIVATE_HOST (not requested, not billed)	–	–

One row from that run (docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/), trimmed:

{
  "inputUrl": "https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/",
  "verdict": "REDIRECT_CHAIN",
  "severity": "warning",
  "chainText": "301 → 302 → 200",
  "hops": 2,
  "finalStatus": 200,
  "finalUrl": "https://docs.apify.com/actors/running",
  "issueCodes": "REDIRECT_CHAIN, TEMPORARY_REDIRECT",
  "issueSummary": "REDIRECT_CHAIN: 2 hops: 301 → 302 → 200 | TEMPORARY_REDIRECT: 302 at https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/",
  "fix": "Multi-hop chain. Update the first rule to point straight at the final URL (one 301) and update internal links.",
  "chain": [
    { "step": 0, "url": "https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/", "status": 301, "type": "redirect", "location": "https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/" },
    { "step": 1, "url": "https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/", "status": 302, "type": "redirect", "location": "https://docs.apify.com/actors/running" },
    { "step": 2, "url": "https://docs.apify.com/actors/running", "status": 200, "type": "final" }
  ],
  "charged": false
}

(These are public pages picked to show each verdict. A chain on someone else's site is just an observation, not a claim that it hurts them.)

Verdicts and what to do

Verdict	Severity	Meaning	Fix
OK / REDIRECT_OK / MAP_OK / STATUS_OK	ok	200 directly, one clean 301/308 to a 200, lands where your map says, or returns the status you expected (e.g. 410)	–
MAP_MISMATCH	error	Redirects, but not to the URL in your map	Point the rule at the expected URL
NOT_REDIRECTED	error	Your map expects a redirect, the URL answers itself	Add the missing 301
STATUS_MISMATCH	error	Status differs from the one you expected (e.g. expected 410, got 200)	Fix the rule or the expectation
LOOP / TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS	error	Never reaches a page (more than 10 hops by default; Googlebot follows up to 10)	Remove the conflicting rule
BROKEN_4XX / SERVER_ERROR	error	Ends on 404, 410, 5xx…	301 to the closest live page, or 410 on purpose
TARGET_NOINDEX	error	Redirects to a noindex page (meta robots or X-Robots-Tag)	Remove noindex or pick another target
DNS_ERROR / SSL_ERROR / TIMEOUT / CONNECTION_ERROR	error	Host doesn't resolve, bad certificate, no answer	Fix DNS / certificate / server
REDIRECT_CHAIN	warning	2+ hops	Point the first URL straight at the final one (see FLATTENED_REDIRECTS.csv)
TEMPORARY_REDIRECT	warning	A 302/303/307 in the chain	Use 301 or 308 for permanent moves
REDIRECTS_TO_HOMEPAGE	warning	Deep URL dumped on the homepage (Google often treats it as a soft 404)	Redirect to the closest matching page
SOFT_404	warning	200 page that says "not found"	Return 404/410 or redirect properly
META_REFRESH	warning	Client-side refresh used as a redirect	Replace with a server 301
HTTPS_TO_HTTP / HTTP_FINAL	warning / notice	Chain drops to HTTP, or ends on HTTP	Keep every hop on HTTPS
CANONICAL_ELSEWHERE, CROSS_DOMAIN, NOINDEX	notice	Final page's canonical points elsewhere; redirect leaves the domain; page is noindex	Check it is intended
BLOCKED, PRIVATE_HOST, INVALID_INPUT	notice	401/403/429/bot challenge, internal address, unreadable line	Never billed

Input

Plain list, pairs and expected statuses in one box:

{
  "urls": [
    "https://example.com/old-page",
    "https://old-site.com/blog/post-1 https://new-site.com/blog/post-1",
    "https://example.com/discontinued-product 410"
  ]
}

A migration redirect map (header names like old/new, source/destination, from/to and status are recognised; comma, semicolon or tab):

{
  "redirectMapCsv": "old_url,new_url,status\n/blog/seo-tips,/guides/seo-tips,301\n/old-pricing,/pricing,301\n/spring-sale,,410",
  "baseUrl": "https://www.example.com"
}

Or a link: "redirectMapUrl": "https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/<id>/edit#gid=0" (share as Anyone with the link can view). Or check an old sitemap after launch: "sitemapUrl": "https://old.example.com/sitemap.xml", "maxUrls": 5000.

Options: maxRedirects (10), checkTargetPage (on: noindex, canonical, soft 404, meta refresh), followMetaRefresh (on), strictTrailingSlash (off: /page = /page/), browserUserAgent (off), maxConcurrency (10), requestTimeoutSecs (20), maxUrls (1,000; up to 20,000).

What a run costs

URLs	Price
20	$0 (free every run)
100	$0.064
1,000	$0.784
10,000	$7.98

Set Maximum cost per run in the run options and the actor stops exactly there (tested: cap $0.004 → 20 free + 5 billed URLs, then a clean stop with stoppedAtSpendLimit: true in SUMMARY).

How it compares (live Apify Store prices, verified 20 Oct 2026)

Actor	Price	Map QA (old → expected)	Notes
This actor	20 free/run, then $0.0008/URL	yes (pairs, CSV, Sheets link)	Chains, loops, soft 404, noindex target, homepage dumps, fix list + flattened CSV
Broken link / bulk status checkers (several)	$0.001–$0.0025 per URL	no	Status codes and chains
Budget bulk status checkers	~$0.00008–$0.0006/URL + $0.005–$0.035 start fee	no	Cheaper at very large volume, start fee on small runs
Site migration redirect map validator	$0.005 per mapping	yes	6× the price per row

For AI agents / MCP

Works as a tool in Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any agent through the Apify MCP server (cygnix_labs/redirect-checker) or the API. Ask: "Check these 300 old URLs redirect to the new site and give me the ones that don't." The agent passes:

{ "redirectMapUrl": "https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/<id>/edit#gid=0", "maxUrls": 300 }

and reads verdict, matchesExpected and fix from the dataset, or the ready FIX_LIST.csv. Run it synchronously with POST https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/cygnix_labs~redirect-checker/run-sync-get-dataset-items.

FAQ

How do I check if a 301 redirect works? Put the old URL and the new URL on one line (old new). MAP_OK means it lands there; MAP_MISMATCH shows where it really goes; TEMPORARY_REDIRECT means it's a 302, not a 301.

How do I find redirect chains and loops in bulk? Paste the URLs or your sitemap. Every row shows the full chain (301 → 302 → 200), and FLATTENED_REDIRECTS.csv lists source → final for each chain so you can rewrite the rules as single hops.

Does it follow JavaScript redirects? No, only HTTP redirects and meta refresh (no browser, which keeps it fast and cheap). Search engines also prefer server-side 301s.

Why is a URL BLOCKED? The server answered 401/403/429 or a bot challenge, so nothing could be checked. It's free. Try browserUserAgent: true or check from your own network.

Does /page vs /page/ count as a mismatch? Not by default. Turn on strictTrailingSlash if it matters. Host case, default ports and #fragments are always ignored.

Is it safe to run on a live site? Yes: plain GET requests, max 4 at a time per host, no form posts. Bodies are only read for final HTML pages (first 1.5 MB).

Changelog

• 0.1 (20 Oct 2026): first public release. Hop-by-hop tracing, map QA (pairs, CSV, Sheets/Drive/Dropbox links, relative paths), sitemap input (indexes, .gz), 20+ verdicts with fixes, fix list + flattened redirects CSVs, spend cap safe, private-address guard.

More tools by Cygnix Labs

• Internal Link Audit: Orphan Pages & Sitemap Crawl: crawl your site for orphan pages and broken internal links.
• Website SEO Audit & Site Audit Crawler: page-level technical SEO + AEO score.
• Content Decay Audit: find pages losing traffic after a migration.
• Planning the migration? Our skill Plan 301 Redirects for a Site Migration Without Losing SEO (Claude Code / Cursor / Codex) builds the redirect map this actor tests.