# URL Status & Redirect Chain Checker: bulk HTTP status codes (`steadydata/url-status-redirect-checker`) Actor

HTTP status code and full redirect chain for up to 500 URLs per run: every hop with its status and target, the final URL and status, loop detection, HTTP-to-HTTPS upgrades, content type, server and response time. Dead links are delivered as rows, not hidden. Pay per URL.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/steadydata/url-status-redirect-checker.md
- **Developed by:** [Steadydata Team](https://apify.com/steadydata) (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

$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 Chain Checker: bulk HTTP status codes

HTTP status code and full redirect chain for up to 500 URLs per run: every hop with its status and target, the final URL and status, loop detection, HTTP-to-HTTPS upgrades, content type, server and response time. Dead links are delivered as rows, not hidden. Pay per URL.

### Why this scraper

- **Only delivered results are charged.** Inputs that fail come back as clear error
  records at no cost.
- One small request per hop, no browser and no page body: a chain of redirects costs a handful of header-only requests. Measured on the platform: seven URLs, including a redirect chain, a 404, a dead host and a robots-blocked page, for two hundredths of a cent.
- The whole chain, not just the end: every hop with its status code and target, the final URL and status, loop detection, HTTP-to-HTTPS upgrade, content type, server header and response time. Dead links come back as rows with `reachable` false and a one-word `failureReason` (dns, timeout, ssl, connection), which is what a link checker is for. Every URL and every hop is checked against the host's robots.txt first.

### Who this is for

Paste URLs or bare domains in `urls` (up to 500 per run), set `maxRedirects` (default 10, ceiling 20) and `timeoutSeconds` (default 15). Every row carries the URL, the first status code, the final URL and its status, `ok` (the chain ends in a 2xx), `reachable`, the number of redirects, the chain as a list of `status target` strings, loop and https-upgrade flags, content type, server, response time in milliseconds, a failure reason when something broke, and the time of the check.

### Who this is not for

This is an HTTP check, not a rendering: JavaScript and meta-refresh redirects are not followed, and a page that answers 200 with an error message inside still counts as ok. Sites that block datacenter traffic answer with their block status (often 403), which is delivered as the honest result. A URL, or a hop in its chain, that the site's robots.txt disallows is not fetched: the URL itself becomes a free `ROBOTS_DISALLOWED` error row, a disallowed hop ends the chain with `failureReason` robots. `redirectCount` counts followed hops; when the cap is reached the row says `too_many_redirects`.

### Input example

```json
{
    "urls": [
        "http://github.com",
        "https://example.com/missing-page",
        "apify.com"
    ],
    "maxRedirects": 10,
    "timeoutSeconds": 15
}
```

### Output example

- `url`
- `statusCode`
- `finalUrl`
- `finalStatusCode`
- `ok`
- `reachable`
- `redirectCount`
- `redirectChain`
- `redirectLoop`
- `httpsUpgrade`
- `contentType`
- `server`
- `responseMs`
- `failureReason`
- `checkedAt`

Error codes: `INVALID_URL`, `ROBOTS_DISALLOWED`.

One delivered row looks like this:

```json
{
  "url": "http://github.com/",
  "statusCode": 301,
  "finalUrl": "https://github.com/",
  "finalStatusCode": 200,
  "ok": true,
  "reachable": true,
  "redirectCount": 1,
  "redirectChain": [
    "301 https://github.com/"
  ],
  "redirectLoop": false,
  "httpsUpgrade": true,
  "contentType": "text/html",
  "server": "github.com",
  "responseMs": 159,
  "failureReason": null,
  "checkedAt": "2026-09-16T18:25:31Z",
  "status": "ok"
}
```

### Related actors from steadydata

- [sitemap-urls](https://apify.com/steadydata/sitemap-urls): every URL of a site to feed into the checker
- [technical-seo-audit](https://apify.com/steadydata/technical-seo-audit): the on-page audit of the pages that answer 200
- [domain-dns-ssl-report](https://apify.com/steadydata/domain-dns-ssl-report): DNS and certificate facts for the hosts that fail

### Pricing

Pay per event: one `url-checked` event per delivered result. No charge for inputs
that fail, no separate platform-usage surcharge.

**Free Apify plan:** this actor delivers up to 25 rows per run for accounts on the Apify free
plan, and then stops with a message. That limit is set by us, not by Apify. It exists so the
actor keeps paying for itself for the people who do pay. Any paid Apify plan runs it at full
size, billed per delivered row, with failed rows never charged.

**Reviews:** if this actor saves you time, a short review on this page is the one thing that
helps most. Ratings are what other buyers look at first, and we have no other way to ask.

### FAQ

**Are broken links charged?** Yes, a dead link is a delivered answer (`reachable` false with the reason). Only invalid input and robots-disallowed URLs are free.

**Does it follow the redirects for me?** Yes, up to `maxRedirects` hops, and it reports each one, so a 301 to a 302 to a 200 shows as a chain of two.

**Can I check a whole site?** Feed it the output of the Sitemap URLs actor below; 500 URLs per run, run it as often as you like.

**Why is my page 403 here but fine in my browser?** The check comes from a datacenter address and some sites refuse those. The row shows exactly what such a visitor gets.

**Does it respect robots.txt?** Yes, longest-match rules per host, for the URL and for every hop.

**Is personal data collected?**
`redirectChain` entries read `301 https://example.com/new`; `responseMs` is the time to the first response, headers only; `checkedAt` is the UTC time of the check.

**What happens when the source changes?**
Sources change from time to time; that is the nature of this work. The actor is
monitored daily and fixed fast, and while it is broken you are not charged, because
only delivered results cost anything.

# Changelog

This Actor's version history is a separate document: https://apify.com/steadydata/url-status-redirect-checker/changelog.md

# Actor input Schema

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

One per row, up to 500: full URLs (https://example.com/page) or bare domains.

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

A chain longer than this stops with redirectLoop false and finalStatusCode of the last hop seen.

## `timeoutSeconds` (type: `integer`):

A URL that does not answer within this time is delivered as unreachable.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "http://github.com",
    "https://example.com/missing-page",
    "apify.com"
  ],
  "maxRedirects": 10,
  "timeoutSeconds": 15
}
```

# 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": [
        "http://github.com",
        "https://example.com/missing-page",
        "apify.com"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("steadydata/url-status-redirect-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": [
        "http://github.com",
        "https://example.com/missing-page",
        "apify.com",
    ] }

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

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,steadydata/url-status-redirect-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/AfB0yOquQvV8Ws8qf/builds/xsYsc81z19VfX8QpU/openapi.json