HTTP Redirect Chain Checker
Trace the full sequence of HTTP redirects from any URL to the final destination — with status codes.
Quick answer: HTTP Redirect Chain Checker: trace the full sequence of HTTP redirects from any URL to the final destination — with status codes. Runs on our servers, files deleted within minutes, free, no signup.
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Good to know
Every hop in a redirect chain costs a full round trip before the browser sees any content, so a URL that bounces through three or four locations feels sluggish and wastes crawl budget. Search engines pass most, but not all, ranking signal through each redirect, and long chains dilute it further — which is why SEO audits treat anything beyond a single hop as a cleanup target.
The distinction between a 301 (permanent) and a 302 (temporary) matters more than people expect. A 301 tells clients and search engines to remember the new location and update their links; a 302 tells them the change is temporary and to keep requesting the original. Accidentally shipping a 302 where you meant a 301 quietly withholds link equity from the destination.
This checker uses manual redirect handling to expose every intermediate step, something a normal browser hides because it follows redirects silently to the final page. Watch specifically for http → https → http downgrades that can leak the referrer, and for loops that hit the ten-hop safety cap. To inspect the response headers at any single step, pair it with the HTTP headers viewer.
Frequently asked questions
- Why do I care about a redirect chain?
- Each redirect adds round-trip latency and is a SEO penalty. Long chains (3+) often indicate stale URLs that should be collapsed. Mixed http→https→http chains can leak referrer data.
- Why does this run on a server?
- Browser fetch follows redirects automatically and won't tell you the intermediate hops. Our server uses 'redirect: manual' to capture each step and report it back.
- Will you fetch private URLs?
- We refuse private IP ranges and localhost. Use only against public URLs or your own infrastructure.
- What's the redirect cap?
- 10 hops. Beyond that we abort and report a likely loop. RFC 7231 suggests 5 as a sensible limit; 10 leaves headroom for legitimate edge cases.
- Is the URL logged?
- Per-request stats only (status, duration). The URL itself is not stored.