Free tool
Redirect chain checker
Every hop between the URL you paste and the page that actually loads, with the status code on each one. Fetched as an iPhone — so a redirect that only fires for a phone shows up here, and does not in a tool that asks as a desktop.
Why this one asks as a phone
The expensive redirect is the one your laptop cannot see
Most redirect checkers request the URL the way a desktop browser would. That answers the question for desktop visitors, and most paid clicks are not desktop visitors. A geo rule, an m-dot site, an app-install interstitial or a consent wall that fires only for phones will pass every one of those tools and fail every real customer.
So this one fetches twice, as an iPhone and as a laptop, and tells you when the two disagree. That comparison is also a test in its own right.
Bulk redirect checker
A redirect chain checker for the whole campaign
A campaign is a sheet of destination URLs, not one. Paste the column here and every line is followed as a phone, in turn: the chain of status codes, the page it lands on, and a verdict — arrives, lands elsewhere, says it is gone, dead, or refused us. Copy the result back out as a table.
Common questions
Redirects, answered plainly
How do I check a URL redirect?
Request the URL without letting the client follow the redirect automatically, read the Location header, then repeat for each hop until a response arrives that is not a redirect. This tool does exactly that and prints every hop with its status code, so a chain of four is visible as four rather than as one final page.
What is a redirect chain and why does it matter?
A redirect chain is more than one redirect between the URL requested and the page delivered — for example http to https, then non-www to www, then an old path to a new one. Each hop costs a round trip before anything renders, which is paid for in latency on a mobile connection, and each hop is somewhere the chain can break later. Search engines also pass signals through them less predictably the longer they get.
What is the difference between a 301 and a 302 redirect?
A 301 says the move is permanent, so browsers cache it and search engines transfer the ranking signals to the destination. A 302 (and 307) says it is temporary, so the original URL is kept as the canonical one. Using a 302 for a permanent move leaves signals stranded on a URL nobody visits; using a 301 for a temporary one is hard to undo because browsers have cached it.
Can a page redirect only on mobile?
Yes, and it is common — a separate m-dot site, a geo rule, an app-install interstitial, or a consent flow that only fires for phones. It is also the most expensive kind if you are buying traffic, because most ad clicks are phones and a desktop test will never reveal it. This tool fetches as an iPhone and compares against a laptop, which is what makes that case visible.
Can I check redirects in bulk?
Yes — paste up to 10 URLs, one per line, into the bulk checker further down this page and each one is followed as a phone in turn, with its chain, where it landed and a verdict per line, and the lot copies out as a table for a spreadsheet. Ten at a time is the limit because every line is a real fetch from our server; a longer list is a monitoring job, not a bulk check.
Do redirects hurt paid search performance?
A redirect to the right page mostly costs latency. A redirect to the wrong page — a sign-in wall, a homepage, an expired offer — costs the entire click, because the visitor never sees what the ad promised. That is the failure this checker is built around: INC-2291 spent $12,480 because a deploy dropped one path prefix and the catch-all answered 200 OK.
Why a one-off redirect check is the least useful version of this. A chain you check today tells you about today. INC-2291 was a URL that had been correct for months until a deploy dropped one path prefix at midnight, after which every paid click landed on a sign-in wall answering 200 OK — and $12,480 left the account before anyone looked. Checking is free and always will be. Noticing is the product.