Broken Link Checker - Find Dead Links on Any Page

Scans a webpage, extracts every link, and checks each one's HTTP status to find broken (404/5xx/timeout) links. Returns a clear report of dead links with their status codes so you can fix them fast.

What it does

Give it a page URL and it will:

1. Download the page and extract every unique <a href> link (relative links are resolved to absolute URLs). Non-navigable links (#anchors, mailto:, tel:, javascript:) are ignored and not counted.
2. Check the HTTP status of each link (up to the configured limit), using a HEAD request first and falling back to GET only when the server responds 405 Method Not Allowed or 501 Not Implemented (other rejections, e.g. 403 or 400, are reported as-is without a GET retry).
3. Report every link whose status is 404, any 5xx, a network error, or a timeout as broken, together with its anchor text.

Useful for developers, SEO managers and site owners who want to catch dead links on a page without installing a heavy crawler.

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
startUrl	string (required)	—	The URL of the page to scan for links.
maxLinks	integer	50	Maximum number of links to check in a single run (1–500), to control cost and runtime.
checkExternalLinks	boolean	true	If true, also checks links pointing to other domains, not just the start page's own domain.

Example input:

{
  "startUrl": "https://example.com",
  "maxLinks": 50,
  "checkExternalLinks": true
}

Output

One dataset row per run:

{
  "sourceUrl": "https://example.com",
  "totalLinksFound": 12,
  "checkedCount": 12,
  "brokenLinks": [
    { "url": "https://example.com/old-page", "anchorText": "Old page", "status": 404 },
    { "url": "https://example.com/down", "anchorText": "Down", "status": "TIMEOUT", "error": "timeout" }
  ]
}

• sourceUrl — the page that was analyzed.
• totalLinksFound — total number of unique links found on the page.
• checkedCount — number of links actually checked (limited by maxLinks).
• brokenLinks — links that returned 404, 5xx, a network error, or timed out, each with its URL, status (or error type), and anchor text.

Pricing

Pay per event: $0.01 per page scanned. One page scanned and all its links checked (up to 'Max links'), charged once per page whatever the number of broken links found.

You only pay for these events: the platform usage of the run is covered by the Actor. Failed fetches are not charged. You can cap the cost of a run with the maximum charge setting of your run.

Limits

• The start page must respond with HTML within 15 seconds, or the run fails immediately with no charge (network error, non-HTML content, or timeout).
• Up to 500 links are checked per run (default 50), to keep cost and runtime predictable.
• No login, no proxy, no personal data collected — only public pages you point it at.

Use in your workflow

Replace <APIFY_TOKEN> with your token from Apify Console → Settings → API & Integrations.

HTTP API (curl) — run and get the results in one call:

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/devoted_laureate_r8f~broken-link-checker/run-sync-get-dataset-items" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_TOKEN>" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"startUrl": "https://www.python.org/", "maxLinks": 50, "checkExternalLinks": true}'

JavaScript (npm install apify-client):

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('devoted_laureate_r8f/broken-link-checker').call({"startUrl": "https://www.python.org/", "maxLinks": 50, "checkExternalLinks": true});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Python (pip install apify-client):

import os
from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient(os.environ["APIFY_TOKEN"])
run = client.actor("devoted_laureate_r8f/broken-link-checker").call(run_input={"startUrl": "https://www.python.org/", "maxLinks": 50, "checkExternalLinks": True})
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

AI agents (MCP) — expose only this Actor as a tool through the Apify MCP server:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "find-broken-links-on-page": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=devoted_laureate_r8f/broken-link-checker",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer <APIFY_TOKEN>"
      }
    }
  }
}

For agents: call it when you need to find dead links (404, 5xx, timeouts) on a web page. Input: startUrl; optional maxLinks (up to 500) and checkExternalLinks. Output: one record per page with the links checked and brokenLinks[] (url, anchor text, status). Cost: $0.01 per page scanned; failures are not charged.

FAQ

Which links are checked?

All links found on the start page, up to 'Max links'. External links are included when 'Check external links' is on.

Am I charged if no broken link is found?

Yes, one event per page scanned: every link was still checked and reported.

Related tools

• Hreflang Checker - Validate hreflang Tags — dead alternate URLs also break hreflang
• Canonical Tag Checker - Bulk Canonical URL Audit — pages you link to should also have a correct canonical