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Redirects

Redirect loop

Also known as: too many redirects, infinite redirect

A redirect loop exists when URLs redirect to each other in a circle, for example A to B and B back to A. The target page is never reached, because no response ends the chain. Browsers stop after a while and show an error, often a “too many redirects” message.

At a glance

Status code
3xx (error case)
Class
3xx (redirection)
Duration
until the conflicting rules are fixed
In Google
follows up to 10 redirect hops by default, a loop has no target; Search Console reports "Redirect error"
Specification
RFC 9110, section 15.4 (clients should detect cyclical redirections)

Last checked:

How does a redirect loop come about?

Loops usually appear when two rules work against each other. MDN says that most of the time this is a server problem. If the server can detect the loop, it may send a 500 Internal Server Error. If the loop spreads over several servers that each see only part of it, browsers detect it instead. MDN quotes Firefox (“… redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never terminate”) and Chrome (“This Webpage has a redirect loop”).

Documented example from Cloudflare: if the SSL/TLS mode sends unencrypted requests to the origin and the origin redirects every HTTP request to HTTPS, the two redirects chase each other. MDN also warns that forgetting to update an HTML redirect after changing an HTTP redirect can cause an infinite loop.

Redirect chain and redirect loopTop: /old reaches the target via two intermediate URLs, three redirects and four requests. Bottom: /a redirects to /b and /b back to /a, so the loop never reaches a page with status 200.Chain: 3 redirects, 4 requests/old/products/old/p/new-2019/target/200 OK301301301Loop: no target reachable/a/b301301Browsers give up after a number of hops, and so do crawlers.
Every hop in a chain is a separate request. Google’s crawlers follow up to 10 redirect hops; Google still recommends redirecting straight to the final destination. Sources: Google Search Central: HTTP status codes, network and DNS errors; Google Search Central: Site moves with URL changes.

Redirect loops and SEO

Google’s crawlers follow up to 10 redirect hops by default and process the content of the final target. A loop has no final target. In Search Console, the Page indexing report lists “Redirect error” for URLs where Google ran into a redirect chain that was too long or a redirect loop, among other problems. URLs in a loop cannot be indexed while the loop exists.

Example

Text
https://example.com/pricing  → 301 → https://example.com/pricing/
https://example.com/pricing/ → 301 → https://example.com/pricing

The two rules disagree on the trailing slash and send every request back and forth.

Common mistakes

  • Redirect rules in several layers (CMS, plugin, server, CDN) that were never aligned.
  • A new redirect that was not checked against existing rules.

Sources

  1. Redirections in HTTP – MDN Web Docs (Redirection loops)developer.mozilla.org
  2. How HTTP status codes affect Google's crawlers – Google Crawling Infrastructure (2026-02-04)developers.google.com
  3. Page indexing report – Search Console Help (Redirect error)support.google.com
  4. Fix ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS – Cloudflare docs (2026-09-01)developers.cloudflare.com
  5. RFC 9110: HTTP Semantics, 15.4 Redirection 3xx – IETFrfc-editor.org

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