Free tool
See every hop, status code, and the final destination.
No signup required. URLs checked here are not stored.
Clean redirects matter for affiliates. Once the link works, track which video actually sends traffic.
A redirect checker follows a URL through every hop it makes before landing on a final destination, reporting the status code at each step. It's the fastest way to see whether a link redirects the way you expect, where a broken chain actually fails, and how many hops a visitor's click has to survive to get there.
URL A → 301 → URL B → 302 → URL C → 200. Every hop is a separate HTTP request - the checker follows each one exactly like a browser would, recording the URL and status code until it reaches a final destination or gives up.
A chain is flagged broken if any hop errors out, it loops back to a URL it's already visited, it exceeds 10 redirects, or it times out - all common failure modes for shortened or expired affiliate links. A 301/302 chain ending in 200 is a healthy redirect; a chain ending in 404 is a broken final destination, not a broken redirect.
Fewer hops and lower load time aren't just faster - some in-app browsers and networks cap how many redirects they'll follow, so a long chain can lose clicks entirely, not just slow them down.
| Status | What it means in a redirect chain |
|---|---|
301 | Permanent redirect |
302 | Temporary redirect |
303 | See other (temporary, forces GET) |
307 | Temporary redirect, preserves method |
308 | Permanent redirect, preserves method |
200 | Final successful response |
404 | Not found |
410 | Gone |
403 | Forbidden |
429 | Too many requests |
500 | Server error |
502 | Bad gateway |
503 | Service unavailable |
An affiliate link often passes through a shortener, then a tracking layer, before reaching the merchant's product page. If any one of those hops fails, the visitor never arrives - and you never find out unless you check.
Want to stop checking links by hand? GoloLink can monitor your tracked links in the background and flag a destination the moment it starts failing - a rate-limited check is treated as inconclusive rather than falsely marked broken, so you only get alerted about real problems. See GoloLink for affiliate marketers or explore link monitoring.
A shortened URL hides its final destination behind one or more redirects - a Bitly link, a branded short link, a creator's own link, or a campaign link. Paste any of them here to reveal the full redirect path before you visit or share it. A shortened URL isn't inherently unsafe - it just isn't transparent about where it leads until you check. See the best tools for YouTube creators for where a short link fits into a wider workflow, or use the short link generator to create tracked short links.
Creators often leave links in a video's description for months or years. The destination can move, expire, start returning an error, or pick up an extra redirect hop long after you published - use this tool to check a link before publishing or while troubleshooting an old video.
GoloLink can monitor tracked links automatically instead of requiring you to check every video's links by hand. See GoloLink for YouTubers.
301 means the resource has permanently moved - search engines transfer ranking signal to the new URL, and it's the right choice when a destination is gone for good. 302 means the redirect is temporary - the original URL is expected to be used again. 307 and 308 behave like 302 and 301 respectively, but explicitly preserve the original request method rather than always switching to GET.
One redirect is often fine. Multiple unnecessary hops increase latency and create more opportunities for something to fail along the way.
Tagging the link in the first place? Use the UTM Builder. Want to see which video actually drove the click? Read Stop guessing which video converts.