ads.txt Checker

Check a live website’s ads.txt: status, redirects, content type and your publisher ID.

How to use the checker

Enter your domain, such as example.com, choose ads.txt or app-ads.txt, and optionally enter your Google publisher ID. Press Check file. Our server requests the file the way an ad crawler would and shows you the final address, every redirect, the HTTP status code and the content type, followed by a line-by-line validation of the contents.

Why test the live file?

A file can look perfect on your computer and still fail online. The most common reasons are a wrong folder, a server that shows a web page instead of the file, a redirect to another domain, a firewall that blocks automated requests, or an expired HTTPS certificate. The checker reveals these problems, which a simple copy-and-paste validation cannot.

Reading the results

HTTP status 200 means the file was served successfully. Anything else, such as 403, 404 or 500, means crawlers cannot read it.
Content-Type text/plain is what crawlers expect. If you see text/html, your server is probably returning a page instead of the file.
Redirects within your own domain, such as http to https or root to www, are normal. Long chains or redirects to other domains can cause problems.
Publisher ID result confirms whether a valid google.com line with your ID is present.

The checker says “could not connect”

Make sure the site is online and that HTTPS works on the domain you entered. Our guide to ads.txt not found errors walks through every common cause.

Fair use

To keep the service fast for everyone, each visitor can run up to 10 checks per minute. The checker only fetches ads.txt and app-ads.txt from public websites, and we do not store the results.

Frequently asked questions

Why does my browser show the file but the checker does not?

Your browser may have cached an old version, or a firewall may treat automated requests differently. Check firewall or bot-protection settings for requests to /ads.txt.

Does the checker follow redirects?

Yes, up to five redirects, and it shows each one so you can see the full path.

How soon will AdSense see my fixed file?

Google recrawls on its own schedule. It can take a few days, and longer for low-traffic sites.