# Bulk URL Status Checker – HTTP Codes & Redirect Chains (`gazidev/bulk-url-status-checker`) Actor

Check thousands of URLs at once: HTTP status code, every redirect hop (301/302/307/308), final URL, loops, broken links (404/410/5xx), DNS/SSL/timeout errors, plus optional title, canonical and noindex. Verify migration redirect maps. $0.30 per 1,000 URLs.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/gazidev/bulk-url-status-checker.md
- **Developed by:** [Cemal Atakli](https://apify.com/gazidev) (community)
- **Categories:** SEO tools, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.30 / 1,000 url checkeds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Bulk URL Status Checker – HTTP Status Codes, Redirect Chains & Broken Links

Paste a list of URLs and get **one clean row per URL**: the HTTP status code, **every redirect hop** (301, 302, 307, 308 with each `Location`), the final URL and its status, redirect loops, and **broken links** (404, 410, 5xx). DNS failures, timeouts and SSL certificate problems are reported too. You can also have it read the page **title, canonical and noindex**, and **verify a redirect map** after a site migration.

- **$0.30 per 1,000 URLs.** That is about 8× cheaper than the most-run status checker on the Store. Invalid inputs and duplicates are free.
- **Full redirect chains.** Redirects are followed one hop at a time, so you see each hop: `http → https → www → /new-path`. Loops and chains longer than your limit are flagged.
- **Migration QA.** Paste `old-url new-url` pairs and each row gets `matchesExpected: true/false`.
- **Accurate.** It sends HEAD first and **re-checks with GET** when a server mishandles HEAD (405, 403, 404, 5xx). That removes most of the false "broken" results simple checkers report. It retries on timeouts, 429 and 503.
- **Polite and fast.** About 20 URLs in parallel, at most 4 per host, plain HTTP with no browser. An honest User-Agent is sent, or you can set your own.
- **Many input options.** A list, a pasted CSV (Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, Search Console exports), a file URL, or another Actor's dataset (for example our [Sitemap Extractor](https://apify.com/gazidev/sitemap-url-extractor)).

### What can I use it for?

- **Broken link checks:** find 404s, 410s, 5xx errors and dead domains in a list of backlinks, outbound links, affiliate links or ad landing pages.
- **SEO redirect audits:** spot redirect chains (more than one hop), 302s that should be 301s, http pages that do not go to https, and redirect loops.
- **Site migration QA:** check hundreds of old URLs against the expected new URLs right after launch, then again a week later.
- **Link-list cleanup:** check directories, CRM website fields or bookmark exports before you use them.
- **Monitoring:** schedule it daily on your key pages, with `outputFilter: "broken"`, and send the result to Slack or email with an Apify integration.
- **Indexability checks:** with `extractPageInfo` on, find pages with `noindex` or a canonical that points elsewhere.

### Input

| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| `urls` | URLs or bare domains (`example.com` is checked as `https://example.com/`) |
| `bulkText` | Paste a long list, a CSV with a `url`/`link`/`address` column, or any text that contains URLs |
| `redirectMap` | Migration check: one `old-url new-url` pair per line (space, tab, comma or `->`) |
| `sourceFileUrl` | Link to a .txt/.csv file (a published Google Sheet CSV works) |
| `datasetId`, `datasetField` | Read URLs from another Apify dataset (default field `url`) |
| `outputFilter` | `all`, `problems` (non-2xx, redirects, SSL problems, mismatches) or `broken` (4xx/5xx/errors) |
| `extractPageInfo` | Also read `title`, `canonical`, `metaRobots`, `noindex` and a meta refresh from the final page |
| `method` | `auto` (HEAD, with a GET fallback) or `GET` |
| `maxRedirects` | Default 10. Longer chains are reported as `TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS` |
| `checkInvalidSsl` | Still get the status of sites with a bad certificate. The problem goes in `sslError` (default on) |
| `maxUrls`, `dedupe`, `maxConcurrency`, `maxRequestsPerHost`, `timeoutSecs`, `retries`, `userAgent`, `proxyConfiguration` | Advanced |

```json
{
  "urls": ["https://apify.com", "http://apple.com", "https://github.com/apify/this-repo-does-not-exist"],
  "redirectMap": "http://google.com https://www.google.com/",
  "extractPageInfo": true,
  "outputFilter": "all"
}
```

### Output

One row per URL. The Output tab has three tables: **Status overview**, **Redirect chains** and **Page info**.

```json
{
  "input": "http://apple.com",
  "url": "http://apple.com/",
  "status": 301,
  "statusText": "Moved Permanently",
  "finalUrl": "https://www.apple.com/",
  "finalStatus": 200,
  "statusClass": "2xx",
  "ok": true,
  "redirected": true,
  "redirectHops": 1,
  "redirectChain": [
    {"url": "http://apple.com/", "status": 301, "responseMs": 416, "location": "https://www.apple.com/"},
    {"url": "https://www.apple.com/", "status": 200, "responseMs": 96}
  ],
  "redirectLoop": false,
  "permanentRedirectsOnly": true,
  "httpToHttps": true,
  "contentType": "text/html",
  "server": "Apple",
  "responseMs": 96,
  "totalMs": 515,
  "methodUsed": "GET",
  "errorCode": null,
  "sslError": null,
  "title": "Apple",
  "canonical": "https://www.apple.com/",
  "canonicalIsSelf": true,
  "noindex": false,
  "checkedAt": "2026-10-05T11:56:38+00:00"
}
```

- `status` is the **first** response. `finalStatus` / `finalUrl` come from the end of the chain. `statusClass` (`2xx`, `3xx`, `4xx`, `5xx`, `error`) and `ok` describe the final result. `ok` is false when the certificate is invalid.
- `errorCode` is one of: `DNS_ERROR`, `TIMEOUT`, `SSL_ERROR`, `CONNECTION_REFUSED`, `CONNECTION_RESET`, `NETWORK_ERROR`, `REDIRECT_LOOP`, `TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS`, `BAD_REDIRECT`, `INVALID_URL` (free).
- With `redirectMap`, rows also get `expectedUrl` and `matchesExpected`.
- A run summary (counts per status class and error code, plus any URLs left unchecked) is saved as the `SUMMARY` record in the run's key-value store.

### Pricing

Pay per event: **$0.30 per 1,000 URLs checked** ($0.0003 per URL), plus a tiny start fee of $0.00005 per run. Invalid inputs and removed duplicates are not charged. Every URL that is checked is charged once, whatever the output filter shows.

| Actor | Monthly users | Price per 1,000 URLs |
|---|---|---|
| **This Actor** | – | **$0.30**, full chain, GET fallback, migration map |
| logiover/bulk-url-status-checker | 17 | $2.50 (7,600+ runs) |
| automation-lab/bulk-url-status-checker | 17 | $0.08 + $0.005 per run start |
| khadinakbar/broken-link-checker | 26 | $1.00 |
| automation-lab/http-status-checker | 6 | $0.57 + $0.035 per run start |
| pink_comic / dltik / hipersoft status checkers | 4–6 each | $1.00–$2.00 |
| onescales/simple-http-status-code-checker | 4 | $300 |

Competitor figures are from the Apify Store on 2026-10-05. Examples: 10,000 backlinks cost **$3**. A daily check of 200 key pages costs about **$1.80 per month**.

Set *Maximum cost per run* in the run options and the Actor stops cleanly at that limit. The URLs it did not check are listed in `SUMMARY`.

### FAQ

**Why does a URL show 200 here but 403 in another tool (or the other way round)?** Some sites block bots or particular IP ranges. This Actor sends an honest User-Agent from Apify's datacenter IPs. For sites that block that, set `userAgent` and/or a proxy.

**Does it follow JavaScript redirects?** No, there is no browser. HTTP redirects (3xx + `Location`) are followed. A `<meta http-equiv="refresh">` target is reported in `metaRefreshUrl` when `extractPageInfo` is on.

**Does it crawl my site to find links?** No. It checks the URLs you give it. To check every page of a site, first get the URLs with our [Sitemap Extractor](https://apify.com/gazidev/sitemap-url-extractor) and pass its dataset ID here. For a full on-page audit, use our [SEO Audit Crawler](https://apify.com/gazidev/seo-audit-crawler).

**HEAD vs GET?** HEAD is faster and downloads no body. Many servers answer HEAD wrongly (405 or 404), so `auto` mode confirms those with GET before reporting. Use `GET` mode if you want GET only.

**How many URLs can I check?** Hundreds of thousands. The Actor works in batches of 200, and memory stays under 100 MB.

**Is it legal?** It makes one ordinary request per URL (plus redirects), much like a browser opening a link, and it rate-limits itself per host. Only check URLs you are allowed to access. Questions: iletisim.ortalamabiri@gmail.com.

### Use with AI agents / Apify MCP

The input is a list of URLs and each row is compact JSON, so it works well as an agent tool, for example *"are any of these 300 links broken?"* or *"does every old URL redirect to the right new page?"*. Through the [Apify MCP server](https://mcp.apify.com) (`https://mcp.apify.com?actors=gazidev/bulk-url-status-checker`), Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other MCP clients can call it directly. Over the API: `POST https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/gazidev~bulk-url-status-checker/run-sync-get-dataset-items` with the input JSON.

### Related website tools

[Sitemap Extractor](https://apify.com/gazidev/sitemap-url-extractor) · [SEO Audit Crawler](https://apify.com/gazidev/seo-audit-crawler) · [Website to Markdown](https://apify.com/gazidev/website-to-markdown) · [Domain Checker – WHOIS, DNS, SSL](https://apify.com/gazidev/domain-intel) · [Tech Stack Detector](https://apify.com/gazidev/tech-stack-detector)

# Actor input Schema

## `urls` (type: `array`):

Full URLs (`https://example.com/page`) or bare domains (`example.com`, checked as https). Paste as many as you like; duplicates are removed and invalid values are reported for free.

## `bulkText` (type: `string`):

Paste a long list: one URL per line, a CSV export with a `url` / `link` / `address` column (e.g. from Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, Search Console), or any text - every URL in it is picked up.

## `redirectMap` (type: `string`):

For site migrations: one pair per line, `old-url new-url` (separated by a space, tab, comma or `->`). Each old URL is checked and the row gets `expectedUrl` and `matchesExpected` (true only when the final URL equals the expected one and returns 2xx).

## `sourceFileUrl` (type: `string`):

Optional: a public link to a .txt or .csv file with URLs (Google Sheets 'Publish to web → CSV' links work).

## `datasetId` (type: `string`):

Optional: chain this Actor after a crawler or sitemap extractor. Every value of the field below is checked.

## `datasetField` (type: `string`):

Field name in that dataset (arrays of URLs are also accepted).

## `outputFilter` (type: `string`):

`all` = one row per URL. `problems` = only URLs that are not 2xx, redirect, have an SSL problem or do not match the expected URL. `broken` = only 4xx/5xx/network errors. Every checked URL is charged either way.

## `extractPageInfo` (type: `boolean`):

Download the first 96 KB of each final HTML page (GET instead of HEAD) to add `title`, `canonical`, `canonicalIsSelf`, `metaRobots`, `noindex` and `metaRefreshUrl`. Slightly slower; same price.

## `method` (type: `string`):

`auto` sends HEAD first (fast, no body) and re-checks with GET when a server mishandles HEAD (405, 403, 404, 5xx…). `GET` always uses GET (only headers are read).

## `maxRedirects` (type: `integer`):

Longer chains are reported as `TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS`. Loops are detected automatically.

## `checkInvalidSsl` (type: `boolean`):

When a certificate is invalid/expired, retry without verification so you still get the status code; the problem is reported in `sslError`. Off = report `SSL_ERROR` and stop.

## `maxUrls` (type: `integer`):

Check at most this many URLs (0 = no limit).

## `dedupe` (type: `boolean`):

Check each normalized URL once.

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

Total parallel checks.

## `maxRequestsPerHost` (type: `integer`):

Keeps the load on any single website low.

## `timeoutSecs` (type: `integer`):

Per hop. Timed-out URLs are reported as `TIMEOUT`.

## `retries` (type: `integer`):

Retries for timeouts, connection errors, 429 and 503 (with backoff).

## `userAgent` (type: `string`):

Optional. By default an honest bot User-Agent with a contact address is sent.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Optional. Only needed for sites that block datacenter IPs.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "https://apify.com",
    "http://apple.com",
    "https://github.com/apify/this-repo-does-not-exist",
    "https://www.python.org/doc/",
    "https://example.com/old-page"
  ],
  "datasetField": "url",
  "outputFilter": "all",
  "extractPageInfo": false,
  "method": "auto",
  "maxRedirects": 10,
  "checkInvalidSsl": true,
  "maxUrls": 0,
  "dedupe": true,
  "maxConcurrency": 20,
  "maxRequestsPerHost": 4,
  "timeoutSecs": 15,
  "retries": 1,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `overview` (type: `string`):

No description

## `redirects` (type: `string`):

No description

## `seo` (type: `string`):

No description

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

## `summary` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "urls": [
        "https://apify.com",
        "http://apple.com",
        "https://github.com/apify/this-repo-does-not-exist",
        "https://www.python.org/doc/",
        "https://example.com/old-page"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("gazidev/bulk-url-status-checker").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "urls": [
        "https://apify.com",
        "http://apple.com",
        "https://github.com/apify/this-repo-does-not-exist",
        "https://www.python.org/doc/",
        "https://example.com/old-page",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("gazidev/bulk-url-status-checker").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "urls": [
    "https://apify.com",
    "http://apple.com",
    "https://github.com/apify/this-repo-does-not-exist",
    "https://www.python.org/doc/",
    "https://example.com/old-page"
  ]
}' |
apify call gazidev/bulk-url-status-checker --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,gazidev/bulk-url-status-checker"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/Eib1WOOcZKlzKdjhu/builds/4L9IQaaaXYcOGi0YK/openapi.json