Free Redirect Chain Checker

The Redirect Chain Checker is a free online tool that check if a url redirects and trace the full redirect chain. identifies 301, 302, and other redirect types plus canonical url mismatches.. It runs entirely in your browser with no installation or sign-up needed.

301 (permanent), 302 (temporary), and other 3xx redirects are detected and shown in the chain.

Browser security policies block direct cross-origin requests. The tool uses corsproxy.io to fetch external URLs.

Yes, completely free.

Absolutely. The Redirect Chain Checker processes everything client-side in your browser. No data is uploaded to or stored on any server. Your content remains private on your device at all times.

Yes, the Redirect Chain Checker is fully responsive and works on smartphones and tablets. You can use it on any device with a modern web browser -- no app download required.

No account or registration is needed. Simply open the Redirect Chain Checker in your browser and start using it immediately. There are no sign-up walls or usage restrictions.

Simply enter your input in the provided field, adjust any settings to your preference, and the tool will process it instantly. You can then copy the result to your clipboard or download it.

The Redirect Chain Checker works in all modern browsers including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, and Opera. For the best experience, use the latest version of your preferred browser.

A 301 is a permanent redirect: it tells search engines the page has moved for good, so they should index the new URL and pass nearly all of the old page's link equity to it. A 302 is a temporary redirect: it signals a short-term move, so search engines often keep the original URL indexed and may not transfer ranking signals the same way. The practical rule is to use a 301 for permanent moves like a site migration, HTTPS rollout, or renamed page, and reserve 302 for genuinely temporary situations such as A/B tests or maintenance pages. Using a 302 where a 301 belongs can quietly stall a migration and split your authority. Trace any URL with this checker to confirm where it lands and verify the redirect is doing what you intended.

The final status code is the HTTP response from the last URL the request resolves to, and it tells you whether the chain ends in a working page. A 200 means a healthy, live page that visitors and crawlers can load normally. A 404 means the destination is missing, so a redirect is forwarding people and search bots to a dead end, which wastes any link equity that was being passed along. A 500 signals a server error at the end of the trail. The status code matters as much as the redirect itself: a 301 that lands on a 404 is still a broken experience. This tool shows the final status as a badge alongside the final URL, so you can spot a chain that ends badly at a glance and fix the destination before it costs you traffic.

A site can technically respond on up to four addresses: HTTP and HTTPS, each with and without www. If all four resolve independently instead of funneling into one preferred version, search engines may treat them as separate pages, splitting your traffic, links, and ranking signals across duplicates. The fix is to redirect every variant to a single canonical address, for example sending HTTP and the non-www form to your HTTPS www version with 301s. That consolidates authority onto one URL. This checker runs those variant tests automatically: it swaps www for non-www and HTTP for HTTPS, then reports whether each one redirects to your preferred address. Run a trace on your homepage to confirm all four entry points land on the same version rather than diluting your domain across mirrors.

No, and confusing the two is a common mistake. A redirect is a server instruction that physically forwards a browser from one URL to another, so visitors actually land on a different address. A canonical tag, the rel="canonical" link in a page's HTML, is only a hint: it tells search engines which version of a page is the master copy to consolidate ranking signals around, but the page still loads at its own URL and users are not moved. You use a redirect when a page has truly moved, and a canonical when near-duplicate pages should stay accessible but share credit, such as a print version or a URL with tracking parameters. This tool reports both separately, showing the final redirect destination and the declared canonical URL, so you never mistake a canonical hint for an actual server-side forward.

Every extra hop in a redirect chain adds a round trip before the page finally loads, so a URL that bounces through three or four redirects feels slower to visitors and delays the content arriving. Each hop can also bleed a little link equity, meaning a backlink pointing at the start of a long chain passes less authority to the destination than a single clean redirect would. Worse, crawlers have limited patience and may give up before reaching the real page, or the chain can end in a loop or a broken status code. The best practice is to keep redirects to a single hop, updating old links to point straight at the final URL. Paste a URL into this checker to see the destination it resolves to and confirm it forwards cleanly instead of dragging visitors through unnecessary hops.