How to use
01
Paste the URL
Enter a full address including https:// in the URL field. The scheme matters, because the http and https versions of a site frequently return different headers and redirects.
02
Press Check
A HEAD request goes out from the server, so no page body is transferred. Status, response time in milliseconds, and the final URL appear as three summary cards.
03
Scan the header list
Every response header is listed with its value and a copy button, and the count above the table tells you how many the server sent back.
Why HTTP Headers Checker
- Inspect every response header from any URL.
- Shows status code, redirect chain target, response time.
- Uses HEAD request, no body transferred.
Common questions
Why does the header checker use a HEAD request instead of GET?
HEAD asks for headers only, so nothing heavy gets downloaded and results come back fast. Most servers answer HEAD and GET identically. A few misconfigured ones treat HEAD differently, so if a result looks odd, compare it against DevTools on a real page load.
What does the Final URL card in the header results mean?
It's where the request actually ended up after any redirects were followed. If you enter http://example.com and the final URL reads https://www.example.com, you've just confirmed both the HTTPS upgrade and the www canonicalization in one check.
Which security headers should appear when I check a production site?
At minimum look for strict-transport-security, x-content-type-options set to nosniff, and a content-security-policy. referrer-policy and permissions-policy round out a solid baseline. Missing entries here are among the most common findings in a security review.
How do I read cache-control values in the response headers?
max-age is the freshness lifetime in seconds, public and private control shared caching, and no-store forbids caching entirely. A static asset showing max-age=31536000 is set up well, while an HTML page with the same value would be a red flag.
Can I check headers on a URL that requires login?
There's no way to attach credentials, so you'll get the logged-out response, typically a 302 to the login page or a 401. That's still useful, since the redirect target and its headers are visible and often exactly what you're debugging.
Why is the response time in the header check lower than my page load time?
The number measures one round trip for headers only. Full page load adds HTML download, CSS, JavaScript, images, and rendering. Treat this value as server responsiveness, closer to time-to-first-byte than to anything a lighthouse report shows.
What do the status badge colors mean in the header results?
A 2xx code gets a success badge, 3xx shows in the accent color for redirects, 4xx appears as a warning, and 5xx turns danger red. It's a quick visual cue before you read the exact code and status text next to it.