# Broken Link Checker (`parseforge/broken-link-checker`) Actor

Check a list of URLs for broken links, redirects, and slow pages. Returns status codes, response times, and error details for each URL.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/parseforge/broken-link-checker.md
- **Developed by:** [ParseForge](https://apify.com/parseforge) (community)
- **Categories:** SEO tools, Automation, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 90 total users, 6 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: 2.75 out of 5 stars

## Pricing

from $0.60 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

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

[![ParseForge](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ParseForge/apify-assets/main/banner-v4.webp)](https://apify.com/parseforge?fpr=vmoqkp)

### Broken Link Checker

**Check any list of URLs for broken links, redirects, and slow pages in one run.** Each URL is tested with a real HTTP request and reported with its status code, response time, and any errors. No login or API key. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

Broken links hurt your SEO, user trust, and crawl budget. Manually checking each URL is tedious and error-prone. This Actor takes a list of URLs and checks each one for broken links, redirects, 404s, and slow responses, returning a clean dataset you can act on immediately.

| Who uses it | What they scrape Broken Link Checker for |
|---|---|
| SEO specialists | Find and fix broken links on their own site or a client's site to improve rankings and user experience. |
| Web developers | Automate link checking during site maintenance or before launch to ensure all links work. |
| Content managers | Regularly verify that outbound links in articles and resources are still valid. |
| Digital marketers | Monitor backlink profiles and identify broken links on partner or affiliate sites. |

### What it does

This Actor checks a list of URLs for broken links, redirects, and slow pages, and returns each URL with its status code, response time, and error details.

- 🔗 **Multi-URL input:** Provide an array of URLs to check in one run, from a handful to thousands.
- ⏱️ **Custom timeout:** Set a per-request timeout from 1 to 60 seconds to match your network conditions.
- 🔁 **Redirect control:** Choose whether to follow redirects and set a maximum redirect count.
- 🐢 **Slow page detection:** Define a response time threshold to flag pages that are slow for users.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

### What you can do with Broken Link Checker data

**🔍 Audit your website for broken links.**

SEO specialists run a list of their site's URLs to find 404s and fix them before they hurt rankings.

**🛠️ Verify links before a site launch.**

Developers check all internal and external links on a staging site to ensure nothing is broken.

**📝 Maintain content quality.**

Content managers periodically check outbound links in articles to keep resources up to date.

**📈 Monitor backlink health.**

Marketers check the URLs of their backlinks to identify broken ones and request fixes from webmasters.

### Why choose this scraper

|  | What you get |
|---|---|
| **Status code** | The HTTP status code returned for each URL, such as 200, 404, or 301. |
| **Response time** | How long the request took, so you can spot slow pages that hurt user experience. |
| **Error details** | Any connection errors, timeouts, or invalid responses, with a clear message. |
| **Redirect info** | The final destination URL when redirects are followed, plus the redirect count. |

### How it compares

Compared to a full SEO audit tool, this Actor focuses specifically on link checking, making it faster and simpler for that single task.

| Feature | ParseForge | Complete SEO Audit Tool - Website Crawler with 0-100 Scores |
|---|---|---|
| Check a list of URLs | Yes | Not listed |
| Follow redirects | Yes | Not listed |
| Custom timeout | Yes | Not listed |
| Slow page detection | Yes | Not listed |
| SEO score for each page | Not listed | Yes |

### Configure the run

Feed the Actor a list of URLs, and it checks each one with a real HTTP request. You control the timeout, redirect behavior, and slow page threshold, so you get exactly the data you need. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "https://apify.com",
    "https://example.com"
  ]
}
```

### Pricing

Pay-per-result: **$0.0012 per result** collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

| Results collected | Approximate cost |
|---|---|
| 100 results | $0.12 |
| 1,000 results | $1.20 |
| 10,000 results | $12.00 |

New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.

### Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. [Upgrade your Apify plan](https://console.apify.com/sign-up?fpr=vmoqkp) to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

### Run it

1. [Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit](https://console.apify.com/sign-up?fpr=vmoqkp).
2. Open the [Broken Link Checker](https://apify.com/parseforge/broken-link-checker?fpr=vmoqkp).
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click **Start**.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the **Dataset** tab.

Run it programmatically through the [Apify API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2) (`run-sync-get-dataset-items`) or the [ApifyClient](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js) for JavaScript and Python.

### Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to Broken Link Checker through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

```bash
claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/broken-link-checker"
```

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

### Troubleshooting

**Why am I getting no results?**

Make sure you provided at least one valid URL in the 'urls' field. Also check that the URLs are publicly accessible and not blocked by robots.txt or a firewall.

**Why are some URLs timing out?**

Increase the 'timeout' value (up to 60000 ms) to allow more time for slow servers to respond. Also check your network connection.

**Why are redirects not being followed?**

Ensure 'followRedirects' is set to true. If it is, but you still see redirects, check that 'maxRedirects' is high enough.

**Why is a page marked as slow?**

The response time exceeded your 'slowThreshold'. You can raise the threshold if you consider the page acceptable.

**Why do I get a 403 error for some URLs?**

The server may be blocking automated requests. Try adding a user agent or using a proxy, but note that this Actor does not support custom headers.

### FAQ

| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What does the Actor consider a broken link? | A URL is considered broken if it returns a 4xx or 5xx status code, or if the request fails due to a connection error, timeout, or invalid response. |
| Can I check URLs from a sitemap? | This Actor expects a list of URLs. You can extract URLs from a sitemap using a separate Actor like Sitemap URL Extractor, then feed the list here. |
| How many URLs can I check in one run? | There is no hard limit, but the run time depends on the number of URLs and the timeout you set. For large lists, consider increasing the timeout or splitting the list. |
| Does the Actor follow redirects? | By default, yes. You can disable redirect following or set a maximum redirect count to control the behavior. |
| What does 'slow page' mean? | A page is marked as slow if its response time exceeds the threshold you set, defaulting to 2 seconds. |
| Can I export the results? | Yes, the dataset can be exported to CSV, JSON, Excel, XML, or other formats from the Apify platform. |
| Does it require an API key or login? | No, it uses public HTTP requests and does not require any authentication. |
| What if a URL is behind a login or firewall? | The Actor will likely get a 401 or 403 status, which will be reported as a broken link. It cannot access protected pages. |

### Related actors

Browse the full [ParseForge collection](https://apify.com/parseforge?fpr=vmoqkp) for more scrapers.

🆘 **Need help?** Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ **Disclaimer.** This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Apify. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.

# Actor input Schema

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

Array of URLs to check for broken links, redirects, 404s, and slow pages. Each URL will be checked and reported with status codes, response times, and any errors.

## `timeout` (type: `integer`):

Timeout for each URL check request in milliseconds. Default is 10000ms (10 seconds).

## `followRedirects` (type: `boolean`):

Whether to follow redirects and report the final destination. Default is true.

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

Maximum number of redirects to follow. Default is 10.

## `slowThreshold` (type: `integer`):

Response time threshold in milliseconds to mark a page as slow. Default is 2000ms (2 seconds).

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

Extra attempts after a timeout or a dropped connection, with a longer timeout each time. A timeout is the network, not a broken link: measured on a 500 link set, every false positive came from a single slow request. Default 2.

## `treatTimeoutsAsBroken` (type: `boolean`):

Off by default. A link that ran out of time is reported with the timeout category and isBroken false, so a slow server does not show up as a dead link. Turn this on if your report needs timeouts flagged.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "https://apify.com",
    "https://example.com"
  ],
  "timeout": 10000,
  "followRedirects": true,
  "maxRedirects": 10,
  "slowThreshold": 2000,
  "retries": 2,
  "treatTimeoutsAsBroken": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `links` (type: `string`):

Complete dataset with all link check results including status codes, response times, redirect chains, and error details

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

Overview view of link check results with key fields displayed in a table format

# 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",
        "https://example.com"
    ],
    "retries": 2
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("parseforge/broken-link-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",
        "https://example.com",
    ],
    "retries": 2,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("parseforge/broken-link-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",
    "https://example.com"
  ],
  "retries": 2
}' |
apify call parseforge/broken-link-checker --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,parseforge/broken-link-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/3IbATLWWJ3BcLQTLU/builds/Wzsecpq3kUDtzUXKU/openapi.json