Redirect Chain Checker – Trace URL Redirects Online Free
About the Redirect Chain Checker
The Redirect Chain Checker traces every hop a URL takes before reaching its final destination. Enter one or more URLs, and the tool follows each redirect step by step, showing the HTTP status code at every stage, the final destination URL, and a visual chain so you can see exactly how the redirect path unfolds.
This tool is built for SEOs, developers, and site owners who need to catch redirect issues before they hurt rankings or user experience. It flags redirect loops, HTTPS-to-HTTP downgrades, and chains longer than three hops — all common problems that waste crawl budget, slow down page load, and dilute link equity passed through 301 or 302 redirects. If you’re preparing redirects for a site migration, our Robots.txt Tester can help verify important pages remain crawlable, while the URL List Comparator makes it easy to compare old and new URL lists.
Our team checked this tool with common redirect scenarios, including 301, 302, redirect loops, and multi-hop chains, to ensure every step is reported accurately.
How to Use the Redirect Chain Checker
- Enter one or more URLs in the “URLs to Check” box, one URL per line.
- Set the “Max Redirects” limit (default: 10) to control how many hops the tool follows before stopping.
- Click “Check” to run the analysis.
- Review the status of each URL — successful resolution, non-2xx final status, or an error.
- Check any Warnings for issues like redirect loops, HTTPS-to-HTTP downgrades, or long chains.
- View the visual chain to see every redirect step and its HTTP status code, from the original URL to the final destination.
For large website audits, you can compare multiple redirect lists first with our URL List Comparator before checking their redirect paths.
Frequently Asked Questions
A redirect chain happens when a URL redirects to another URL, which then redirects again, one or more times, before reaching a final destination page.
Long chains slow down page load speed, waste crawl budget, and can dilute the link equity passed through each redirect, which may hurt rankings.
A redirect loop occurs when a URL eventually redirects back to a page already visited in the chain, causing an endless cycle that browsers and crawlers can’t resolve.
Ideally, a URL should redirect directly to its final destination in a single hop. More than 2-3 redirects in a chain is generally considered excessive.
Redirecting from a secure HTTPS URL to an insecure HTTP URL is a security risk and can trigger browser warnings, so the tool flags it explicitly.
Yes, this tool is completely free with no signup required.
