# Broken Link Checker – Website Link Checker & Redirect Checker (`rowfeed/broken-link-checker`) Actor

Crawl a website and check every link and image: broken links (404, 410, 5xx, dead domains), redirect chains, timeouts and links the site blocks, with the pages each link is on. Or check a plain list of URLs. Plain HTTP, robots.txt respected.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/rowfeed/broken-link-checker.md
- **Developed by:** [Rowfeed](https://apify.com/rowfeed) (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 $0.50 / 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

## Broken Link Checker – Website Link Checker & Redirect Checker

Find every broken link on a website. The Actor crawls your site page by page, checks every link and image it finds, and tells you which ones are broken (404, 410, 5xx, dead domains), which redirect and where to, which time out, and on which pages each link sits, so you know exactly what to fix.
Turn crawling off to use it as a bulk URL checker or redirect checker for any list of URLs.
Built for SEO audits, site migrations, agencies checking client sites on a schedule, content teams and AI agents.

### What you get

- **Broken links and broken images** with the HTTP status (404, 410, 500 ...) or the reason there was no answer (dead domain, refused connection, timeout, redirect loop).
- **Where each link is:** up to 5 pages that contain it, how many pages link to it, and the link text or image alt text.
- **Redirect chains:** every hop with its status code (301, 302, 307 ...) and the final URL.
- **Internal and external links** told apart; external links are checked, never crawled.
- **Blocked is not broken:** some sites refuse automated checks (401, 403, 429, LinkedIn's 999). Those links are marked `blocked`, not `broken`, so you do not chase false alarms.
- **Each URL is checked and charged once per site,** however many pages link to it.

### Example output

```json
{
  "url": "https://example.com/old-pricing",
  "category": "broken",
  "status_code": 404,
  "final_url": "https://example.com/old-pricing",
  "redirects": 0,
  "redirect_chain": [],
  "error": null,
  "error_message": null,
  "link_type": "internal",
  "element": "link",
  "anchor_text": "See our pricing",
  "found_on": ["https://example.com/", "https://example.com/blog/launch"],
  "found_on_count": 2,
  "content_type": "text/html",
  "response_ms": 142,
  "site": "example.com",
  "checked_at": "2026-10-28T12:00:00+00:00"
}
```

`category` is one of `broken`, `timeout`, `blocked`, `redirect`, `ok`.

### Input

| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| `startUrls` | Start page of each site to check, e.g. `https://example.com/`. |
| `crawl` | On (default): follow links on the same site. Off: only check the URLs you listed (bulk URL status / redirect check). |
| `maxPages` | Pages to crawl per site, 1 to 5,000. Default 20. |
| `maxLinksPerSite` | Most unique URLs to check per site, 1 to 50,000. Default 1,000. |
| `checkExternalLinks` | Also check links to other websites. Default on. |
| `checkImages` | Also check images. Default on. |
| `output` | `problems` (broken, timed out, blocked; default), `problems_and_redirects`, or `all`. |

### Pricing

Pay per event, no subscription:

- **$0.50 per 1,000 URLs checked** ($0.0005 per unique URL: page, link or image), whatever the result.
- $0.005 per run start.

Examples: a 20-page site with 300 unique links costs about $0.16. 1,000 URLs cost about $0.51.
Cap the cost of a run with the maximum charge setting; the Actor stops checking when the budget is used.

### How it works

- Plain HTTP requests with an honest User-Agent; no browser, no proxies.
- Pages are crawled only on the same domain and only where the site's `robots.txt` allows it; pages marked `nofollow` are not followed.
- Links are checked with a HEAD request, confirmed with GET when a server answers HEAD wrongly, and redirects are followed by hand (up to 10 hops) so the chain is visible.
- At most 2 requests at a time per website, to stay polite.
- Pages that only build their links with JavaScript show fewer links than a browser would.
- Only URLs are read from pages: no page text, e-mail addresses or phone numbers are stored.

### Good to know

- Results for a 20-page site usually arrive within a minute.
- Run it on a schedule to catch new broken links, from the API, n8n/Make/Zapier, or from AI agents through MCP (`rowfeed-seo-mcp`).

### More SEO tools from Rowfeed

- [SEO Audit Tool & Website Crawler](https://apify.com/rowfeed/seo-site-audit) – titles, meta descriptions, H1, noindex, broken links and a 0-100 SEO score for every page.
- [Keyword Research Tool](https://apify.com/rowfeed/keyword-search-volume) – search volume, CPC, keyword difficulty, intent and keyword ideas (Google & Bing).
- [Competitor Keyword Research](https://apify.com/rowfeed/competitor-keywords) – every Google keyword any website ranks for, with position, volume and traffic.
- [SERP API & Rank Checker](https://apify.com/rowfeed/google-serp-api) – Google results for any keyword and country, with your domain's position.
- [Backlinks Checker](https://apify.com/rowfeed/backlink-checker) – referring domains, anchors, dofollow and link strength of any site.
- [Website Traffic & Domain Authority Checker](https://apify.com/rowfeed/website-traffic-checker) – traffic estimate and authority for up to 10,000 domains.
- [AI Search Visibility Tracker](https://apify.com/rowfeed/ai-search-visibility-tracker) – is your brand named and cited by ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Mode.
- [Local Rank Tracker](https://apify.com/rowfeed/google-maps-rank-tracker) – Google Maps rankings on a geo-grid around a business.
- [Google Trends API](https://apify.com/rowfeed/google-trends-explorer) – interest over time, regions and rising searches.
- [Google Images API](https://apify.com/rowfeed/google-images-api) – image URLs and the pages they are on, for image SEO.
- [WHOIS Lookup & Domain Checker](https://apify.com/rowfeed/domain-rdap-checker) – domain age, expiry, registrar and DNS in bulk.
- [Sitemap URL Extractor](https://apify.com/rowfeed/sitemap-url-extractor) – every URL in a site's sitemaps, with lastmod.
- [PageSpeed Insights API](https://apify.com/rowfeed/pagespeed-insights-api) – Lighthouse scores, Core Web Vitals and real-user speed data for many pages at once.
- [DA PA Checker](https://apify.com/rowfeed/da-pa-checker) – domain authority, page authority and spam score for up to 10,000 domains or URLs.

# Actor input Schema

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

Start pages of the sites to check (e.g. https://example.com/). With 'Crawl the site' off, every URL here is checked on its own (bulk URL status and redirect check).

## `crawl` (type: `boolean`):

On: follow links on the same site, page by page, and check every link and image found. Off: only check the URLs you listed.

## `maxPages` (type: `integer`):

How many pages of the site are opened to collect links. Links on those pages are all checked.

## `maxLinksPerSite` (type: `integer`):

Upper limit on unique URLs checked per site (pages, links and images together). Each checked URL is one charged event.

## `checkExternalLinks` (type: `boolean`):

Also check links that point to other domains (not crawled, just checked).

## `checkImages` (type: `boolean`):

Also check image files (img src) for broken images.

## `output` (type: `string`):

Problems only (broken, timed out, blocked), problems plus redirects, or every checked URL. With 'Crawl the site' off, every URL is always output.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://www.scrapethissite.com/pages/"
  ],
  "crawl": true,
  "maxPages": 20,
  "maxLinksPerSite": 1000,
  "checkExternalLinks": true,
  "checkImages": true,
  "output": "problems"
}
```

# 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 = {
    "startUrls": [
        "https://www.scrapethissite.com/pages/"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("rowfeed/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 = { "startUrls": ["https://www.scrapethissite.com/pages/"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("rowfeed/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 '{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://www.scrapethissite.com/pages/"
  ]
}' |
apify call rowfeed/broken-link-checker --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,rowfeed/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/gqM7cFmAqVzpWgDmC/builds/K4ktdjH1RjqXbEXZQ/openapi.json