Free redirect checker

Redirect checker

See every hop a URL takes before it lands: the status code, the next location and the response headers that matter for SEO.

Paste a full URL or a domain. Short links, http:// and www variants are all fine.

How to use the redirect checker

  1. 1

    Paste a URL

    A full URL, a bare domain or a short link. Without a scheme the checker starts at https://.
  2. 2

    Follow the chain

    Each redirect is requested in turn, up to 10 hops, with its status code and Location header.
  3. 3

    Fix what it flags

    Collapse chains into one 301, replace temporary redirects that are really permanent, and remove loops.

What a healthy redirect looks like

A site that moved to HTTPS and the bare domain should answer http://www.example.com/ with one 301 to https://example.com/, which returns 200. Two common mistakes show up as two hops instead: http://www → https://www → https://.

Check every variant visitors and old links use: with and without www, http and https, and old paths from a previous site structure. Before you launch on a directory, check the exact URL you submit, so the listing links straight to a page that loads.

Questions and answers

What is the difference between a 301 and a 302 redirect?

A 301 (or 308) says the page moved permanently, so search engines move their index entry and signals to the new URL. A 302 (or 307) says the move is temporary and the old URL should stay indexed. Use a permanent redirect for domain moves, HTTPS and www changes, and renamed pages. Read the full comparison of 301, 302, 307 and 308.

How many redirects are too many?

One redirect is normal. Every extra hop costs the visitor another round trip, and Google's crawlers follow up to 10 redirect hops by default. If the checker shows two or more redirects, point the first URL straight at the final one.

Why does the checker stop at some redirects?

It only follows http:// and https:// URLs on the standard ports to public websites. It stops at a loop, after 10 redirects, at a redirect without a destination, and at any target on a private network. The report shows where the chain wanted to go next.

Does it follow JavaScript or meta refresh redirects?

It follows HTTP redirects only, which is what crawlers treat as a redirect first. If the final page contains a meta refresh tag, the report notes its delay and target without following it. JavaScript redirects are not detected.

Why might my browser end up somewhere else?

Some sites redirect differently by country, language, device or cookie. The checker sends a plain request from our server with no cookies and an English Accept-Language header, so it sees what a first-time visitor without cookies would see.

Privacy and data handling

The URL you enter is sent to our server, which requests it and each redirect target and returns the result to your browser. We do not store the URL or the result beyond a cache of about a minute that answers repeat checks of the same URL, and refused or failed checks are logged with the host name only. Analytics record that a check ran and whether it succeeded, never the URL. Share links keep the URL after the #, which browsers never send to a server. Before each check, Cloudflare Turnstile confirms in your browser that a person is asking, so bots cannot use the checker to fetch pages; Cloudflare processes the signals that check needs.