# Free Redirect Checker: Status, Location, and Loops | Sidehunt
> Paste a URL. Follow up to 10 redirect hops and see each status code, Location header, and time. Flags loops, long chains, and temporary redirects. Free, no signup.

```yaml
url: "https://sidehunt.io/tools/redirect-checker"
markdown: "https://sidehunt.io/tools/redirect-checker.md"
title: "Free Redirect Checker: Status, Location, and Loops | Sidehunt"
description: "Paste a URL. Follow up to 10 redirect hops and see each status code, Location header, and time. Flags loops, long chains, and temporary redirects. Free, no signup."
site: Sidehunt
```

## Overview

Paste a URL. Follow up to 10 redirect hops and see each status code, Location header, and time. Flags loops, long chains, and temporary redirects. Free, no signup.

Paste a public http or https URL. The checker requests it without following redirects, then follows each Location itself for up to 10 hops. Each hop lists the URL, status code, Location header, and time. A meta refresh in the HTML head is included when one is present. Loops, chains longer than one hop, temporary redirects on an http-to-https or www change, a final status other than 200, and a canonical link that does not match the final URL are flagged.

## FAQ

### What does this redirect checker show?

It requests the URL without letting the HTTP client follow redirects, then requests each next address itself, up to 10 hops. Every hop shows the URL, the status code, the Location header, and how long that hop took. A meta refresh in the page head is listed when one is present. The result stays in your browser. The URL is not stored.

### When should I use a 301 instead of a 302?

Use a 301 or a 308 when you are sure the redirect will not be reverted. Google says a permanent redirect is a signal that the target should be canonical, and that search results should show the new URL. Use a 302 or a 307 when the move is temporary. Googlebot still follows those, but Google does not use them as a signal that the target should be canonical, so the source URL can stay the one shown in Search. A temporary redirect fits a page that is only unavailable for a while. Checked October 2026 against Google Search Central: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/301-redirects

### How are 307 and 308 different from 302 and 301?

MDN groups 301 and 308 as permanent, and 302, 303, and 307 as temporary. For 301 and 302, GET stays GET, and other methods may be changed to GET by some clients. MDN notes the specification did not intend that change. 308 keeps the method and body, which is the permanent status when the request is not a simple GET. 307 keeps the method and body for a temporary move. 303 changes other methods to GET and drops the body, so a refresh after a POST or PUT does not repeat the action. Checked October 2026 against MDN: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Redirections

### Why flag a chain longer than one hop?

Each redirect is another request before the page loads. MDN says performance is hit on every redirect, so the number of redirects should stay small, and that a redirect loop never finishes. This checker flags more than one redirect, and it flags a loop. One permanent hop is the usual pattern for http to https, or for www to non-www. Checked October 2026 against MDN: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Redirections

### Will it request any URL I paste?

No. Only public http and https hostnames are requested. IP addresses, localhost, and names that resolve to private, link-local, or metadata addresses are refused. Each redirect hop is checked again before it is requested. Nothing you paste is stored.


## Related

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- [Sitemap checker](https://sidehunt.io/tools/sitemap-checker) — [Markdown](https://sidehunt.io/tools/sitemap-checker.md)
- [Submit a project](https://sidehunt.io/submit) — [Markdown](https://sidehunt.io/submit.md)
- [Pricing](https://sidehunt.io/pricing) — [Markdown](https://sidehunt.io/pricing.md)

## Links

- [HTML version](https://sidehunt.io/tools/redirect-checker)
- [AI-friendly Markdown](https://sidehunt.io/tools/redirect-checker.md)
- [llms.txt index](https://sidehunt.io/llms.txt)

_HTML version: https://sidehunt.io/tools/redirect-checker_