Redirect Chain Checker - trace every 301/302 hop to the final URL

Paste a URL, get the whole redirect path. Every hop with its status code and Location header, the final destination and its status, the hop count, and the SEO problems hiding in the chain - redirect loops, chains that are too long, insecure http:// hops, and 302s doing a 301's job.

No API key. No browser. No actor-start fee - $0.02 per URL traced, flat, however many hops the chain turns out to have.

> Run it on the Apify Store: https://apify.com/eliai/redirect-chain-checker - use it from the console, the API, or as an agent tool over Apify MCP.

Use it as a redirect checker, URL redirect tracker, 301 vs 302 checker, redirect loop detector, short-link expander (bit.ly, t.co, lnkd.in), HTTP status checker, or a scriptable stand-in for curl -ILs across a whole list of URLs.

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What it does

• Follows redirects hop by hop, up to 15, recording each URL + status code + Location
• Reports the final URL, final status, and the hop count
• Flags the issues that matter for SEO and migrations:
  • Redirect loop - followed to the 15-hop cap, then reported instead of hanging your pipeline
  • Long chain (more than 2 hops) - leaks link equity, adds latency, may stop being followed
  • Insecure hop - the chain passes through plain http:// before landing on HTTPS
  • 302 where 301 belongs - a temporary redirect quietly withholding ranking signals
• Bulk: pass a list, get one record per URL in a single run
• Never crashes on a bad URL - an unreachable host becomes an error entry in the chain, and error-only traces are not charged

Input

Single URL:

{ "url": "http://github.com" }

Bulk (one record per URL, maxUrls is also your budget cap):

{ "urls": ["http://github.com", "https://bit.ly/3xyzabc"], "maxUrls": 25 }

Field	Type	Default	Notes
url	string	http://github.com	One URL. A bare domain gets https:// prepended.
urls	array of strings	-	Bulk list; takes precedence over url.
maxUrls	integer	25	Hard cap on URLs processed - and therefore on spend.

Output - real, from a live run (2026-08-09)

[
  {
    "url": "http://github.com",
    "finalUrl": "https://github.com/",
    "finalStatus": 200,
    "hops": 1,
    "hasRedirect": true,
    "redirectChain": [
      { "url": "http://github.com", "status": 301, "location": "https://github.com/" },
      { "url": "https://github.com/", "status": 200, "location": null }
    ],
    "issues": ["Chain passes through insecure http://"],
    "summary": "1 hop(s) -> 200, 1 issue(s)"
  },
  {
    "url": "https://bit.ly/3xyzabc",
    "finalUrl": "https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1h58cRaUSsDuzotaMOSMsfMkwGTwdpFBR?usp=sharing",
    "finalStatus": 404,
    "hops": 1,
    "hasRedirect": true,
    "redirectChain": [
      { "url": "https://bit.ly/3xyzabc", "status": 301, "location": "https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1h58cRaUSsDuzotaMOSMsfMkwGTwdpFBR?usp=sharing" },
      { "url": "https://drive.google.com/...", "status": 404, "location": null }
    ],
    "issues": [],
    "summary": "1 hop(s) -> 404, 0 issue(s)"
  }
]

That second record is the everyday win: the short link resolves fine, but the thing it points at is gone. A plain "does this URL work" check follows the redirect and reports 404 with no idea where the rot is.

Call it from anywhere

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/eliai~redirect-chain-checker/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -d '{"urls":["http://github.com"],"maxUrls":25}'

Use cases

• Site migration QA - after a replatform, verify every old URL lands on the right new one in one hop, not three
• SEO audits - find the chains and 302s that bleed link equity and crawl budget
• Short-link forensics - expand bit.ly / t.co / lnkd.in and see the real destination before you click it
• Affiliate and UTM QA - confirm tracking parameters survive every hop
• Agent tooling - one deterministic JSON answer to "where does this URL actually go", callable over Apify MCP

Honest limits

• Follows HTTP-level redirects only: Location headers on 3xx responses. Meta-refresh and JavaScript redirects are not followed - if a page redirects via <meta http-equiv="refresh"> or window.location, the chain ends at that page's 200.
• 12-second timeout per hop, 15-hop cap.
• Requests are made with a plain HTTP client (no browser, no proxy rotation). Sites behind aggressive bot protection may answer 403 to us and 200 to you.
• Follows the chain as an anonymous visitor - no cookies, no login, no geo targeting, so redirects that branch on session or country will show the anonymous branch.

Pricing, and how it compares

$0.02 per URL traced - one redirect-checked event per URL, regardless of hop count. No actor-start fee, so a one-URL check costs exactly $0.02 and 100 URLs cost exactly $2.00.

Measured against the named alternatives on the store, re-checked 2026-08-15:

Actor	Price shape	1 URL	100 URLs
eliai/redirect-chain-checker (this one)	$0.02/URL, no start fee	$0.02	$2.00
q_services/redirect-chain-checker	$0.005 start + $0.0002/item	$0.0052	$0.025
mighty_monk/redirect-chain-checker	$0.00005 start + $0.002/item	$0.0021	$0.20
davidbenittah/redirect-chain-auditor	$0.005 start + $0.005/item	$0.010	$0.505

Be honest about which you need. If you are sweeping thousands of URLs for raw status codes, a per-item actor above is cheaper and you should use it. This one is priced for the diagnostic job - the full hop-by-hop chain plus the loop / long-chain / insecure-hop / 302-vs-301 analysis in the same record, with a flat per-URL price that has no start fee to amortize and no surprise item count.

FAQ

How do I see where a URL redirects to? Pass it in. redirectChain lists every hop with its status code and Location; finalUrl and finalStatus show where you actually land. Works on shortened links.

Why are redirect chains bad for SEO? Each extra hop leaks link equity and adds latency, and search engines may stop following long chains entirely - which is why more than 2 hops is flagged.

What is the difference between a 301 and a 302? 301 is permanent (ranking signals transfer); 302 is temporary (the old URL stays indexed). A 302 doing a permanent job withholds equity from the new URL - this actor flags that pattern.

Can it detect redirect loops? Yes. Loops are followed to the 15-hop cap and then reported in issues rather than hanging.

Can I audit a whole list of URLs? Yes - pass an array in urls (capped by maxUrls); you get one record per URL.

Does it follow meta-refresh or JavaScript redirects? No - HTTP Location redirects only. See Honest limits.

What happens if a URL is unreachable? You get a record whose chain ends in an error entry instead of a failed run, and that trace is not charged.

Related actors

Same toolbox, same account - each does one job well:

• Broken Link Checker - crawl a page and find every dead link
• Website SEO Tech Auditor - the full technical SEO pass on one URL
• Sitemap Analyzer - parse and validate a sitemap
• Robots.txt Analyzer - see what you are actually blocking
• DNS Records Lookup - A, AAAA, MX, TXT, NS in one call
• Security Headers Checker - HSTS, CSP, and friends
• Webpage Links Extractor - pull every link off a page

Built by Broke to Built.

For AI agents

This Actor is built to be called by software, not just by people.

• Mount it directly as an MCP tool — no Store search, no ranking, just this one tool: https://mcp.apify.com/?actors=eliai/redirect-chain-checker
• Or call it over HTTP and get the results in the same request: POST https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/eliai~redirect-chain-checker/run-sync-get-dataset-items
• Pay with x402, without an Apify account. This Actor is whitelisted for agentic payments, so an agent holding USDC on Base can buy a prepaid token and spend it here. The minimum purchase is $1, the token balance is an absolute spending cap, and it expires 14 days after purchase.
• Costs are predictable before you call. Pricing is pay-per-event (see Pricing above), so an agent can budget a run in advance instead of discovering the bill afterwards.
• Send only the field you mean. If you pass the bulk field, it is used on its own; the single-value field is a fallback, never merged into your request. You are charged for the items you sent and nothing else.