TrueURL is a free tool that shows where a URL really goes. Paste a link and it traces the full redirect chain, hop by hop, to the final URL, with the status code, headers and timing of every step.

Next to the main URL redirect checker, TrueURL offers dedicated tools for redirect chains, bulk checks, 301 redirects, HTTPS redirects, redirect loops, short URLs, mobile redirects, trailing slashes, meta refresh, sitemaps and redirect latency, plus a reference of HTTP status codes and a blog with in-depth guides.

How it works

Browsers don't let a web page read another site's redirects, so the checking has to happen on a server. TrueURL's checker runs on Cloudflare Workers, in Cloudflare's global edge network, usually in a data center close to you. It requests each URL with automatic redirects turned off, records the response, works out the next URL from the Location header, or from a meta refresh or JavaScript redirect in the page, and repeats until the chain ends. Along the way it keeps cookies like a browser, follows browser rules for the request method, and stops on redirect loops or at the Max Hops limit.

Your browser never opens the URL you check, and we don't store the results. The Privacy Policy explains the details.

What TrueURL can and can't see

TrueURL sees what a first-time visitor from Cloudflare's network sees. That is usually the same as what your browser or a search engine sees, but not always:

  • Some websites block or challenge traffic from data centers and edge networks. TrueURL marks responses that look like a bot check, because the real destination is hidden behind it.
  • By default, TrueURL sends no cookies, a desktop Chrome User-Agent and Accept-Language: en-US. Redirects based on language, device or login can therefore differ from what you see, and Advanced Settings let you send a different User-Agent, headers or cookies to reproduce them. Country-based redirects depend on where the site locates Cloudflare's IP address.
  • TrueURL doesn't run JavaScript. It reads the page's HTML and recognises simple, unconditional JavaScript redirects only.
  • Cloudflare always validates TLS certificates, so a site with an invalid certificate shows a TLS error instead of its redirect.

Being upfront about these limits makes the results more useful, not less.

Who it's for

  • SEO specialists auditing migrations, redirect chains, sitemaps and canonical URLs.
  • Developers and site operators debugging redirect rules in servers, CDNs and applications.
  • Marketers checking campaign, affiliate and short links before they go out.
  • Anyone who wants to know where a link goes before clicking it.

Our other tools

TrueURL is part of a small network of free, single-purpose web tools:

Contact

Found a bug or a wrong result, or have an idea for a new tool? Email us at support@trueurl.com. When you report a result, please include the URL you checked and the settings you used.