# Broken Link Checker — crawl + external links (`x402opklaar/broken-link-checker`) Actor

Crawl a site and verify every link, internal and external: status codes, redirect targets, and exactly which page each broken link sits on. Dead-link report ready for CSV export. Pay per page crawled and link checked.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/x402opklaar/broken-link-checker.md
- **Developed by:** [Opklaar](https://apify.com/x402opklaar) (community)
- **Categories:** SEO tools, Automation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $2.00 / 1,000 page crawleds

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/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## 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.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Broken Link Checker — site crawl + external links

Find every dead link on a website before your visitors (or Google) do. Crawls same-site pages, extracts every link, verifies each one — internal *and* external — and tells you exactly which pages the broken links sit on.

- **Real verification**: HEAD with automatic GET fallback, redirects followed, final URL reported
- **External links included** (optional) — the ones that rot most
- **Actionable output**: each broken link lists the pages it was found on, so fixing it takes seconds
- **Summary row**: pages crawled, links checked, broken count — track link health over time on a Schedule
- **Only-broken mode** for lean reports; full mode for complete link inventories

### Input

```json
{
    "startUrls": ["https://example.com"],
    "maxPages": 50,
    "checkExternal": true,
    "onlyBroken": true
}
```

### Output (one dataset item per link)

```json
{
    "link": "https://partner-site.com/old-page",
    "status": 404,
    "ok": false,
    "internal": false,
    "found_on": ["https://example.com/resources", "https://example.com/blog/post-7"]
}
```

Plus one summary item: `{"_summary": true, "pages_crawled": 50, "links_checked": 420, "broken": 7}`.

### Pricing

Two events, charged only for completed work:

- `page-crawled` — per same-site page fetched and scanned
- `link-checked` — per unique link verified (each link checked once, however many pages it appears on)

Pages that fail to load are not charged.

### Typical setups

- **Weekly link health**: Schedule with `onlyBroken: true` → empty dataset means all good; rows mean fixes needed
- **SEO audits**: full inventory of internal + outbound links with statuses, exportable to CSV/Excel
- **Post-migration QA**: run before and after a relaunch and compare

### Works with AI agents

Exposed via Apify's MCP server — an agent can run *"check example.com for broken links and summarize what to fix"* autonomously.

# Actor input Schema

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

Pages to start crawling from. Same-site pages are followed up to Max pages; every link found is verified.

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

How many same-site pages to crawl and scan for links.

## `checkExternal` (type: `boolean`):

Also verify links pointing to other domains (off = only internal links are verified).

## `onlyBroken` (type: `boolean`):

Output only links that failed (otherwise every checked link is reported with its status).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://example.com"
  ],
  "maxPages": 10,
  "checkExternal": true,
  "onlyBroken": false
}
```

# 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://example.com"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("x402opklaar/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://example.com"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("x402opklaar/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://example.com"
  ]
}' |
apify call x402opklaar/broken-link-checker --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,x402opklaar/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/2Bed6kDqwBihX4zSc/builds/hir6iC7GVlM8AVwFa/openapi.json