Redirect Checker: Bulk Redirect Chain & URL Status

For AI agents: Use when asked to check redirects, follow a redirect chain, find where a URL ends up, check HTTP status codes for a list of URLs, or verify old-to-new redirects after a site migration. Call with urls (URLs, or "old-url new-url" pairs on one line; required), optional outputFilter (all, problems, redirects) and userAgent (browser, googlebot, mobile). Returns one row per URL: finalUrl, finalStatusCode, redirectCount, redirectTypes, redirectChain (every hop), permanent, matchesExpected, problems, canonical, title. Cost: $0.0005 per URL ($0.50 per 1,000); unreachable URLs and invalid inputs free.

For people: Tell your AI agent "check that all 300 old URLs from our migration spreadsheet 301 to the right new pages and list the ones that don't" and it hands the list to this tool, then reads back the problems. No one-URL-at-a-time redirect checkers, and 1,000 URLs cost $0.50.

Bulk redirect checker for hundreds or thousands of URLs in one run. Paste a list of URLs (or old-URL / new-URL pairs) and this redirect chain checker follows every hop like a browser: 301, 302, 303, 307 and 308 redirects plus meta refresh and Refresh header redirects, with the status code, location and response time of each hop. You get the final URL and its HTTP status, and a plain-English problems list: redirect chains (more than one hop), temporary 302 redirects where a 301 belongs, redirect loops, too many redirects, HTTPS to HTTP downgrades, final pages that return 404 / 410 / 5xx, deep URLs that redirect to a homepage (soft 404), final pages that are noindex or whose canonical points elsewhere, and, for migrations, URLs that don't end at the expected new URL.

No proxies, no API keys and no browser: results export to CSV, Excel, JSON or Google Sheets, or run on a schedule to monitor your redirects.

What does this redirect checker do?

• 🔀 Full redirect chain for every URL: each hop's URL, status code (301/302/303/307/308), type (meta-refresh, refresh-header), Location target, response time and server.
• 🎯 Site migration QA: put old-url new-url on a line (or upload a JSON redirect map) and every row says whether the old URL ends at the expected new URL (matchesExpected). Relative targets like /new-page work.
• 🚩 SEO redirect problems: chains, temporary redirects, loops, more than N hops, HTTPS downgrades, final 4xx/5xx, homepage redirects (soft 404), noindex or mismatched canonical on the destination, plain-HTTP destinations, invalid TLS certificates.
• 📊 Bulk URL status checker: the final HTTP status code, page title, content type, canonical, meta robots and X-Robots-Tag for every URL, redirected or not.
• 🤖 Googlebot, desktop or iPhone user agent, since some sites redirect bots or phones differently.
• 🧹 Bulk-friendly input: full URLs or bare domains (example.com -> https://example.com/, use http:// to test the HTTP to HTTPS redirect), de-duplicated; up to 50 URLs in parallel, at most 4 per host.

Use cases

• Website migrations and redesigns: check that every old URL 301s to the right new page before and after launch.
• Redirect audits: find chains and 302s that waste crawl budget and leak link equity, then point each old URL straight to its final destination.
• Backlink and affiliate link checks: see where your inbound links, ads or affiliate links really land.
• Domain consolidation: verify http/https and www/non-www variants all end on one canonical host.
• Bulk URL status checks: HTTP status codes for a list of URLs from a sitemap, a crawl or a spreadsheet.
• Scheduled monitoring: run weekly with Only URLs with problems and get an email, Slack message or webhook when a redirect breaks.

How to use it

1. Paste URLs into URLs, one per line. For a migration, write the old and new URL on the same line: https://example.com/old https://example.com/new.
2. Optionally choose Which URLs to save and the User agent.
3. Click Start, then open the Overview table or export the results.

Input example

{
  "urls": [
    "http://github.com",
    "apify.com/store",
    "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news https://www.bbc.co.uk/news"
  ],
  "outputFilter": "all",
  "userAgent": "browser"
}

Output example

{
  "url": "http://github.com/",
  "input": "http://github.com",
  "status": "ok",
  "finalUrl": "https://github.com/",
  "finalStatusCode": 200,
  "redirectCount": 1,
  "redirectTypes": ["301"],
  "firstRedirectStatus": "301",
  "isRedirect": true,
  "permanent": true,
  "crossDomain": false,
  "expectedUrl": null,
  "matchesExpected": null,
  "ok": true,
  "problems": [],
  "redirectChain": [
    { "url": "http://github.com/", "statusCode": 301, "type": "301", "location": "https://github.com/", "responseTimeMs": 41, "server": null },
    { "url": "https://github.com/", "statusCode": 200, "type": null, "location": null, "responseTimeMs": 180, "server": "github.com" }
  ],
  "title": "GitHub · Build and ship software on a single, collaborative platform",
  "canonical": "https://github.com/",
  "totalTimeMs": 225,
  "checkedAt": "2026-10-25T14:30:00.000Z"
}

URLs that can't be reached at all (DNS failure, timeout, refused) come back with status: "error" and are free. A SUMMARY record in the key-value store has the counts.

How much does a redirect check cost?

You pay $0.0005 per URL checked ($0.50 per 1,000 URLs), whatever the number of hops. Unreachable URLs and invalid inputs are free, and URLs skipped by Which URLs to save are free too. No start fee.

Job	URLs	Cost
Check 500 migrated URLs before launch	500	$0.25
Weekly redirect monitor for 2,000 URLs	~8,000/month	~$4/month
Status codes for a 50,000-URL sitemap	50,000	$25

• Apify's free plan includes $5 of monthly credit, enough for about 10,000 URLs a month.
• Paid Apify plans get automatic discounts: Silver -10%, Gold and above -20%.
• Set Maximum cost per run to cap spend; the Actor stops cleanly at the limit.

Bulk redirect checker vs. the alternatives

	This Actor	Online redirect checkers / extensions	curl -IL by hand	SEO crawler licenses
Thousands of URLs per run	✅	❌ one or a few at a time	✅ after you write the script	✅
Old URL -> expected new URL check	✅	❌	DIY	partly
Meta refresh, loops, soft-404 homepage redirects	✅	partly	❌	✅
Canonical / noindex on the destination	✅	❌	❌	✅
CSV / Excel / JSON / Sheets export, schedules, webhooks	✅	❌	DIY	varies
Callable by AI agents (MCP)	✅	❌	❌	❌
Cost model	$0.50 per 1,000 URLs, no subscription	free, manual	free + your time	yearly license

Use it as an API (Python, JavaScript, cURL)

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("datawright-labs/redirect-checker").call(run_input={"urls": ["http://github.com", "https://example.com/old https://example.com/new"]})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item["input"], item.get("finalUrl"), item.get("finalStatusCode"), item.get("problems"))

JavaScript / Node.js

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>' });
const run = await client.actor('datawright-labs/redirect-checker').call({ urls: ['http://github.com'] });
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

cURL

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/datawright-labs~redirect-checker/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"urls":["http://github.com"],"outputFilter":"all"}'

Use it from your AI agent (MCP)

Your AI assistant or agent can run this Actor as a tool through Apify's MCP server, so it can check redirects on its own while you chat. Add this server to any MCP client that supports remote (Streamable HTTP) servers:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "datawright-redirect-checker": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=datawright-labs/redirect-checker"
    }
  }
}

On first use your browser opens to sign in to Apify (OAuth). If your client can't do OAuth, add "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer <YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>" } instead. The tool shows up as datawright-labs--redirect-checker, with the same input fields as above, and the agent reads the results with get-dataset-items. Then just ask, for example:

Check where these 40 URLs redirect and list any that use a 302, have more than one hop or end on a 404.

Want several Datawright tools at once? Comma-separate them: https://mcp.apify.com?tools=datawright-labs/redirect-checker,datawright-labs/broken-link-checker. Runs are billed per result, exactly like normal runs.

FAQ

How do I check where a URL redirects?

Paste it and run. finalUrl is where it ends, redirectChain lists every hop with its status code, and problems says what to fix.

How do I check redirects after a website migration?

Put each old URL and the new URL it should go to on one line (old new, separated by a space, tab, comma or ->), or paste a JSON redirect map exported from your spreadsheet. Set Which URLs to save to Only URLs with problems to get just the broken ones.

What's the difference between a 301 and a 302 redirect?

A 301 (or 308) says the page moved permanently, so search engines move the old URL's ranking signals to the new one. A 302 (or 303 / 307) says the move is temporary. Using 302s for permanent moves is a common SEO mistake, and this checker flags it.

Why is a redirect chain a problem?

Every extra hop adds latency and wastes crawl budget, and Google stops following after about 10 hops. Point each old URL straight to its final destination.

Does it follow meta refresh and JavaScript redirects?

Meta refresh and the Refresh header, yes (turn it off with Follow meta refresh redirects). JavaScript redirects need a real browser and aren't followed.

Does it test the HTTP to HTTPS redirect?

Yes: enter the URL with http://. A bare domain is checked as https://. For HTTPS, HSTS and header hygiene, use the Security Headers Checker below.

More tools from Datawright Labs

• Meta Tags & Open Graph Checker: bulk title, meta description, canonical, noindex, hreflang, Open Graph / Twitter card and schema.org checks with an SEO problems list per URL.
• Broken Link Checker: crawl a whole site and find broken links, images and redirects, with the page and anchor text of each.
• Sitemap URL Extractor: get every URL of a site from its sitemaps, then check their redirects here.
• Security Headers Checker: bulk HSTS, CSP, X-Frame-Options and HTTPS redirect checks with an A-F grade.
• SSL Certificate Checker: bulk SSL certificate and domain expiry checks with alerts for expiring, invalid or outdated TLS.
• SPF, DMARC & DKIM Checker: bulk email domain audit of SPF (10-lookup limit), DMARC, DKIM, MX provider, BIMI and MTA-STS.
• WHOIS Domain Lookup (RDAP): bulk registrar, domain age, expiry date, nameservers, EPP status and availability from official registry RDAP.
• Bulk PageSpeed & Core Web Vitals Checker: audit PageSpeed / Lighthouse scores for many URLs.
• Website Screenshot API: bulk full-page screenshots and PDFs.
• Google Autocomplete Keyword Scraper: long-tail keyword ideas from Google, YouTube and Bing.
• Greenhouse, Lever & Ashby Jobs Scraper: normalized job feeds from 5 ATS platforms.
• App Store Top Charts & Rank Tracker: daily top free/paid/grossing app rankings with rank changes.

Tip: pair it with the Sitemap URL Extractor to check the redirects of every URL in a sitemap, and the Broken Link Checker to find links that still point at old URLs.

Made by Datawright Labs: reliable, fairly priced web data tools. Questions or a missing feature? Open an issue on the Issues tab; we usually reply within a day.