# URL Status & Redirect Checker (`helveticlabs/url-status-checker`) Actor

Check thousands of URLs for broken links, redirect chains and slow responses. Status code, final URL, every redirect hop and response time per URL. Respects robots.txt, no personal data.

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

## Pricing

from $1.00 / 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

## URL Status & Redirect Checker

Check thousands of URLs in one run and see which ones are broken, which ones redirect, and
where they end up. For every URL you get the HTTP status, the full redirect chain, the
final URL and the response time.

### What you get

- **Broken links:** 404, 410, 5xx, DNS errors, timeouts and TLS errors, each with a clear error code.
- **Redirect chains:** every hop with its status code (301, 302, 307, 308), redirect loops detected.
- **Final URL:** where the link really ends up, and whether it ends on HTTPS.
- **Response time** in milliseconds and the content type.

Typical uses: checking links before and after a site migration, finding broken outbound
links, checking that old URLs redirect in one hop, monitoring a list of important pages.

### How it works

The checker sends a `HEAD` request and falls back to `GET` for servers that do not answer
`HEAD` properly. It never downloads page content.

It is a polite client:

- it reads each site's `robots.txt` and skips URLs the site does not allow,
- it sends one request at a time per host, with a pause between them,
- it identifies itself with a clear user agent.

### Input

```json
{
  "urls": ["https://example.com/", "http://example.com/old-page"],
  "maxRedirects": 10,
  "timeoutSecs": 15,
  "maxConcurrency": 10,
  "perHostDelayMs": 500
}
```

### Output

One item per URL:

```json
{
  "url": "http://example.com/old-page",
  "ok": true,
  "status": 200,
  "final_url": "https://example.com/new-page",
  "redirects": 2,
  "redirect_chain": [
    {"url": "http://example.com/old-page", "status": 301},
    {"url": "https://example.com/old-page", "status": 308}
  ],
  "response_ms": 412,
  "content_type": "text/html",
  "https": true,
  "error": "",
  "error_detail": "",
  "checked_at": "2026-10-18T09:00:00Z"
}
```

Error codes: `timeout`, `dns_error`, `tls_error`, `connection_error`, `protocol_error`,
`too_many_redirects`, `blocked_by_robots`, `robots_unavailable`, `invalid_url`,
`not_public_address`.

### Pricing

You pay per URL checked. Invalid URLs and addresses that are not on the public internet
are listed in the results free of charge. Set a maximum cost for the run, and the checker
stops at your limit.

### Use it from code or AI agents

Run it through the Apify API, schedule it, connect it to Make, Zapier or n8n, or call it
from AI agents through Apify's MCP server.

### FAQ

**Does it check links inside the pages?** No, it checks the URLs you give it. To get all
URLs of a site first, use the Sitemap URL Extractor & Validator from the same author.

**Why was a URL skipped with `blocked_by_robots`?** The site's robots.txt does not allow
automated clients on that path, and this checker respects that.

### Provider, privacy and fair use

**Provider:** HelveticLabs, sole proprietorship of Marvin Krieg, c/o SwissMailBox 170,
12 Rue Le Corbusier, 1208 Genève, Switzerland. E-mail: contact@helveticlabs.org.
Imprint: https://www.helveticlabs.org/imprint

**Privacy:** This Actor runs on the Apify platform, in your Apify account. It processes only
the URLs or domains you enter and the public technical data the checked servers return
(status codes, headers, certificates, DNS records, sitemap URLs, links). It does not collect
personal data: it never stores or returns page text (where a page's HTML is read, it is read
in memory only, to find links and measure tags), and it leaves out e-mail addresses, cookie
names and values and similar values. Your input and results stay in your Apify account and are
stored by Apify under its own terms (https://apify.com/privacy-policy). The provider sees
only the usage statistics Apify shows to Actor authors (such as the number of users and
runs), not your input or results, unless you share a run for support. Questions about
privacy: contact@helveticlabs.org.

**Fair use:** Check only sites you own or may check. Do not use the results to attack
systems or people. The Actor respects robots.txt, identifies itself, and keeps a polite
pace per site.

**No warranty:** The results are automated checks and can be incomplete. They are not a
penetration test, legal advice or a compliance certificate.

# Actor input Schema

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

The URLs to check, one per line. https:// is added when the scheme is missing. Duplicates are checked once.

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

How many redirects to follow before the URL counts as a redirect loop.

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

How long to wait for each response.

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

How many URLs are checked at the same time. Each host still gets only one request at a time.

## `perHostDelayMs` (type: `integer`):

Pause between two requests to the same host. A crawl delay in the site's robots.txt is respected on top.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "https://example.com/",
    "http://example.com/old-page"
  ],
  "maxRedirects": 10,
  "timeoutSecs": 15,
  "maxConcurrency": 10,
  "perHostDelayMs": 500
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (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://example.com/",
        "http://example.com/old-page"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("helveticlabs/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://example.com/",
        "http://example.com/old-page",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("helveticlabs/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://example.com/",
    "http://example.com/old-page"
  ]
}' |
apify call helveticlabs/url-status-checker --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,helveticlabs/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/TTeHzak2Ga26dmLZ4/builds/p0wXzOyi0Ed88Geof/openapi.json