HTTP Status Checker

Introduction

The HTTP Status Checker lets you detect the HTTP status code of any URL, so you can quickly tell whether a page or API is reachable and what result the server returned. Enter a URL and the tool sends a request to the target server, then returns the final status code, reason phrase, protocol version, redirect chain, and key response headers such as Content-Type, Content-Length, and Server.

An HTTP status code is a 3-digit numeric code returned by a web server to describe the result of processing a request. It falls into five categories: 1xx (Informational), 2xx (Successful), 3xx (Redirection), 4xx (Client Error), and 5xx (Server Error). With this tool you can quickly track down common issues like 404s, 301 redirects, or 500 errors. It suits webmasters, operations engineers, developers, and SEO specialists.

Technical Principles

The HTTP status code lives in the status line of an HTTP response message, in the form HTTP/1.1 200 OK, consisting of the protocol version, a 3-digit code, and a reason phrase. Codes are grouped by their first digit: 1xx indicates a temporary response and that the requester should keep going; 2xx means the request was handled successfully; 3xx means further action is needed (usually a redirect); 4xx indicates a problem with the client request; and 5xx means the server hit an internal error while handling the request.

This tool uses PHP's built-in stream wrappers to issue the request. It prefers the HEAD method to fetch the status headers with minimal overhead; if the server rejects HEAD (returns 405), it falls back to GET. The request follows redirects automatically via the stream context's follow_location, and the tool parses the status line of each hop from $http_response_header to reconstruct the full redirect chain. No cURL extension is required, so deployment stays lightweight.

Use Cases

• Availability checks: find out whether a site that is down returns 200, 500, or 404
• Configuration review: confirm whether a page or API redirects to the expected address via 301/302
• SEO audits: verify pages return a 200 status to avoid being penalized by search engines
• API debugging: confirm an endpoint returns the expected code (e.g. 200, 401, or 429)
• CDN / reverse proxy verification: inspect headers like Server to see whether a request hit a cache or proxy
• Migration and monitoring: batch-check whether URLs are still reachable and whether expected redirects occur

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What are the main categories of HTTP status codes?

A: There are five categories: 1xx (Informational), 2xx (Success), 3xx (Redirection), 4xx (Client Error), and 5xx (Server Error). For example, 200 means success, 301 means moved permanently, 404 means not found, and 500 means an internal server error.

Q: What is the difference between 200 and 204?

A: 200 means the server processed the request successfully and returned content; 204 means the server processed the request but returned no content. Both are success codes; they differ in whether the response body carries content.

Q: Why do I see several redirect entries in the result?

A: When an address goes through multiple redirects (for example http to https or a domain change), the tool parses the status line of every hop and shows the complete redirect chain so you can locate the final destination. If the final code is 200, the redirect path is working as expected.

HTTP Status Code Reference

1xx (Informational)

Temporary responses that require the requester to continue the operation.

2xx (Successful)

Codes indicating the request was handled successfully.

3xx (Redirection)

Further action is needed to complete the request. These codes are typically used for redirects.

4xx (Client Error)

These codes indicate that the request may be wrong and prevented the server from processing it.

5xx (Server Error)

These codes indicate that the server encountered an internal error while processing the request. The error is on the server side rather than the request itself.

Typical Usage

Check the status code of a normal website:

Input: https://example.com
Output:
HTTP 200 OK
Status category: 2xx Successful
Protocol version: HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
Content-Length: 1256
Server: ECS (dcb/7F83)
Date: Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Check a missing page (404):

Input: https://example.com/not-found
Output:
HTTP 404 Not Found
Status category: 4xx Client Error
Protocol version: HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8

Related Tools

This tool pairs with DNS Lookup, IP Lookup, and My IP Address as a network diagnostic group: HTTP status tells you whether a page is reachable, DNS resolves a domain to an IP, and IP Lookup dives into the address attributes. When troubleshooting URLs, it is often used together with URL Decode, URL Encode, and URL Params to Table. To identify the file type behind a Content-Type in the response header, you can use the MIME Type Lookup tool.