Bulk URL Status Checker

Check thousands of URLs for HTTP status codes, broken links, redirect chains, response timing, content headers, page titles, meta descriptions, canonical URLs, and robots meta tags.

Use this Actor for SEO audits, website migrations, QA checks, content operations, campaign link validation, and scheduled link-health monitoring.

At a glance

• Primary job: Turn a URL list, pasted text block, hosted list, or sitemap into a structured URL health report.
• Input: URLs, urlsText, listUrl, or sitemapUrl with configurable method, redirects, timeout, and concurrency.
• Output: One dataset row per attempted URL, including both successful responses and failures.
• Best for: SEO teams, agencies, site migration teams, QA teams, marketers, and developers building monitoring workflows.

Who is it for?

• SEO teams and agencies validating migrations, redirects, canonical tags, and broken links.
• QA teams checking landing pages before launches.
• Content operations teams finding removed, redirected, or slow pages.
• Developers feeding URL health data into dashboards, alerts, and CI workflows.

Input recipes

Start from a verified public Example task when you want a ready-made configuration:

• Check website status codes and SEO metadata
• Find broken links and redirect chains
• Check a pasted list of URLs in bulk
• Check URLs from an XML sitemap

Example input

{
  "urls": ["https://example.com/", "https://www.iana.org/domains/example"],
  "maxUrls": 20,
  "concurrency": 10,
  "method": "head-get-fallback",
  "followRedirects": true,
  "includeSeoMeta": true
}

What data can you export?

Field	Description
inputUrl	Original URL supplied by the user.
normalizedUrl	URL after scheme normalization and fragment removal.
finalUrl	Final URL after redirects.
statusCode / statusText	Final HTTP response status.
ok	True for final 2xx or 3xx responses.
isBroken	True for request errors or final 4xx/5xx responses.
isRedirect / redirectCount	Redirect classification and number of followed hops.
redirectChain	Redirect hops with source URL, status code, and Location.
responseTimeMs	Elapsed check time in milliseconds.
contentType / contentLength	Response headers commonly used for QA and SEO exports.
title	HTML page title when SEO extraction is enabled and available.
metaDescription	HTML meta description when available.
canonicalUrl	HTML canonical URL when available.
robotsMeta	HTML robots meta tag content when available.
errorType / errorMessage	Request failure details for DNS, TLS, timeout, and invalid URL cases.
responseHeaders	Optional raw response headers.
checkedAt	ISO timestamp for the check.

Input configuration

Setting	JSON key	Use it for	Default
URLs	urls	Direct list of URLs to check.	sample URLs
URLs as text	urlsText	Paste newline, comma, tab, semicolon, or space separated URLs.	empty
Hosted URL list	listUrl	Fetch a remote text/CSV-like URL list.	empty
Sitemap URL	sitemapUrl	Extract and check <loc> entries from an XML sitemap.	empty
Max URLs	maxUrls	Cap unique URLs after de-duplication.	20
Concurrency	concurrency	Parallel checks. Lower for fragile sites.	20
Timeout	timeoutSecs	Per-URL request timeout.	15
Request method	method	head-get-fallback, get, or head.	head-get-fallback
Follow redirects	followRedirects	Follow redirects and report final destination.	true
Max redirects	maxRedirects	Redirect-hop limit per URL.	10
Include SEO meta	includeSeoMeta	Extract title, description, canonical, and robots meta for HTML pages.	true
Include headers	includeResponseHeaders	Include raw response headers.	false
User-Agent	userAgent	Send a custom User-Agent.	built-in crawler UA
Proxy	proxyConfiguration	Optional Apify Proxy routing.	off

Example output

{
  "inputUrl": "https://example.com/",
  "normalizedUrl": "https://example.com/",
  "finalUrl": "https://example.com/",
  "statusCode": 200,
  "statusText": "OK",
  "ok": true,
  "isBroken": false,
  "isRedirect": false,
  "redirectChain": [],
  "redirectCount": 0,
  "responseTimeMs": 184,
  "contentType": "text/html",
  "contentLength": 1256,
  "title": "Example Domain",
  "metaDescription": null,
  "canonicalUrl": null,
  "robotsMeta": null,
  "errorType": null,
  "errorMessage": null,
  "checkedAt": "2026-07-10T00:00:00.000Z"
}

Pricing

This Actor uses pay-per-event pricing.

Event	Free	Bronze	Silver	Gold	Platinum	Diamond	Charged when
Run start	$0.005	$0.005	$0.005	$0.005	$0.005	$0.005	Once when the Actor starts.
URL checked	$0.000030025	$0.000026108	$0.000020365	$0.000015665	$0.000010443	$0.0000073103	Each URL is checked and saved as a dataset row, including failures.

Tips for best results

• Start small: Run 10-20 URLs first to verify target behavior and output columns.
• Use head-get-fallback by default: It is fast and falls back when servers reject HEAD or HTML meta is requested.
• Use GET-only when needed: Some servers return inaccurate HEAD responses.
• Lower concurrency for one domain: If many URLs hit the same small site, lower concurrency to avoid rate limits.
• Keep raw headers off unless needed: includeResponseHeaders increases dataset size.

Limits and caveats

• Some websites block automated checks or return different results by User-Agent, method, region, or proxy.
• 403, 429, timeout, DNS, TLS, and invalid URL cases are recorded as rows, not treated as actor failures.
• The Actor reports the observed HTTP result; it does not bypass access controls.

API usage

Node.js:

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('fetch_cat/bulk-url-status-checker').call({
  urls: ['https://example.com/', 'https://httpstat.us/404'],
  followRedirects: true,
});
console.log(run.defaultDatasetId);

Python:

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient('YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN')
run = client.actor('fetch_cat/bulk-url-status-checker').call(run_input={
    'urls': ['https://example.com/', 'https://httpstat.us/404'],
    'followRedirects': True,
})
print(run['defaultDatasetId'])

cURL:

curl -X POST 'https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/fetch_cat~bulk-url-status-checker/runs?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"urls":["https://example.com/","https://httpstat.us/404"],"followRedirects":true}'

MCP and AI agents

Use the Actor from MCP-compatible clients through the Apify MCP Server:

$claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=fetch_cat/bulk-url-status-checker"

Claude Desktop JSON configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=fetch_cat/bulk-url-status-checker"
    }
  }
}

Example prompts:

• "Check these landing page URLs and summarize broken links."
• "Run a sitemap status audit and group results by status code."
• "Find redirect chains in this migration URL map."

Related actors

• Sitemap URL Extractor
• Website Contact Finder
• Bing Search Results Scraper

FAQ

Can I check thousands of URLs?

Yes. Increase maxUrls and choose a safe concurrency for the target sites.

Does this use a browser?

No. It is a lightweight HTTP checker for status, redirects, headers, and basic HTML meta signals.

Why do I see 403 or 429?

The target server is refusing or rate limiting the request. Try lower concurrency, GET-only mode, a custom User-Agent, or an approved proxy setup.

Can I export the results?

Yes. Apify datasets can be exported as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, RSS, HTML, or through the API.

Legality and responsible use

Only check URLs you are allowed to audit. Respect target websites, rate limits, robots policies, contracts, and applicable laws. Do not use the Actor to overload third-party servers.

Support

Open an issue from the Actor page if a run fails or output looks wrong. Include the run ID or run URL, input JSON, expected output, actual output, and one reproducible public URL.

Changelog

• 2026-07-15 - Feature: Added ready-to-run example tasks on the Apify Store

• 2026-07-15 - Feature: Launched Bulk URL Status Checker on Apify Store