Expand shortened URLs (bit.ly, t.co, etc.) and trace the full redirect chain to see the final destination safely.
Short links are envelopes, not letters: a bit.ly or t.co address only tells you who forwards it, not what is inside. This tool opens the envelope - it follows the redirect chain hop by hop, reporting each status code and ending at the final destination, without ever rendering a response, so no page script executes in your browser. The requests do come from your browser, so the destination can log them; the safety is in seeing where a link leads without running it. The usual surprise: many shorteners finish with JavaScript or a meta refresh, which an HTTP trace cannot follow - you get the intermediate page, not the final one.
A concrete input and expected output from the current implementation.
Input
https://httpbin.org/redirect-to?url=https://example.com
Expected output
Redirect trace: 1. https://httpbin.org/redirect-to?url=https://example.com - 302 Found, Location: https://example.com 2. https://example.com - 200 OK Final destination: https://example.com (2 hops, 1 redirect)
httpbin.org is a public HTTP testing service, and its /redirect-to endpoint answers any request with a 302 pointing at the URL given in its url parameter. The trace therefore shows exactly one redirect hop followed by the final 200 from example.com - the same two-step shape a bit.ly or t.co link produces, though real shortener chains are usually longer.
The HTTP standard defines redirects as responses with status 301, 302, 303, 307, or 308 that carry a Location header naming the next address. The tool requests the pasted URL, records the response, follows the Location pointer, and repeats until a response is not a redirect. Each hop is reported with its status code, and a hop cap with loop detection keeps chains that never end from running forever.
Every request comes from your browser, not from a remote service - nothing you paste is uploaded or stored elsewhere. Responses are read as data and never rendered, so pages in the chain cannot run scripts or otherwise touch your browser. The trade-off is fidelity: a link that redirects only inside a script, or that varies by user agent or login state, resolves differently here than it would on a click.
It will see a request from your browser's IP address, much like any visit, so tracing is not anonymous. The difference from clicking is that the response is never rendered: no scripts, trackers, or page content ever execute in your browser. If you need the destination not to see you at all, a browser-side trace cannot provide that.
Probably not. A page that redirects with JavaScript or a meta refresh is invisible to an HTTP trace, which stops at the HTML. If the final hop's content is a redirect stub, a browser would continue past it. Treat the last URL as the end of the HTTP chain, not necessarily where your browser would land.
The example and behavioral notes were checked against the browser implementation. Standards and primary references below define the relevant format, formula, or platform behavior.
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