About the HTTP Header Inspector
The HTTP header inspector requests a public web URL and displays the response metadata returned by the server. It is a quick way to check status, redirects, caching, content negotiation, and server behavior without opening browser developer tools.
How to use this tool
Enter a complete public URL, including https:// when appropriate, and run the check. Review the final status and the normalized response headers. Test the exact path involved in a problem because headers can differ between the homepage, assets, API routes, and error pages. If redirects are central to the issue, use the redirect checker to view each step rather than only the resulting response.
How to read the result
The status code describes the response class, such as success, redirect, client error, or server error. Content-Type identifies the returned media type. Cache-Control, Expires, Age, ETag, and Last-Modified influence caching and revalidation. Location identifies a redirect target. Vary tells caches which request headers affect the representation. Server and related headers may describe the serving stack, although they can be removed, generalized, or supplied by a proxy.
Limits and privacy
The request originates from buffer.lol's server and may receive different content than your browser because of geography, cookies, authentication, user agent handling, or bot protection. Response headers alone do not establish that a site is secure. The API blocks private and reserved network targets, limits redirects and response size, and validates resolved addresses to reduce server-side request forgery risk. Submitted public URLs are processed to perform the check.
Common questions
- Why are these headers different from my browser's headers?
- The server-side request has a different location, user agent, cookies, and cache state. Sites can vary responses using any of those signals.
- Can this inspect request headers?
- This page focuses on the response headers returned by the target. It does not reproduce your browser's authenticated request.