Free Brotli Compression Checker — Test If Your Website Uses Brotli Encoding

What Is a Brotli Checker?

A Brotli checker is an online tool that tests whether a website is using Brotli compression — a modern compression algorithm developed by Google that reduces file sizes more efficiently than traditional gzip. Brotli compression can shrink HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files by up to 20–26% more than gzip, resulting in faster page loads and better Core Web Vitals scores.

Simply enter any URL and our tool instantly checks the server's Content-Encoding response header to determine if Brotli is active.

Why Brotli Compression Matters for SEO

Page speed is a confirmed Google ranking factor, and compression is one of the easiest wins for improving it:

• Faster page loads — Brotli typically achieves 15–25% better compression ratios than gzip, meaning smaller file transfers and quicker rendering
• Better Core Web Vitals — Smaller file sizes directly improve Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and First Contentful Paint (FCP)
• Reduced bandwidth costs — Smaller payloads mean lower CDN and hosting bandwidth consumption
• Improved mobile experience — Compressed assets load faster on slower mobile connections
• Browser support — All modern browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge) support Brotli decoding

Brotli vs. Gzip — What's the Difference?

Compression Ratio

Brotli consistently outperforms gzip in compression ratio. For static text assets (HTML, CSS, JS), Brotli produces files that are 15–26% smaller than gzip equivalents.

Speed Trade-Off

Brotli compression at higher levels (6–11) is slower to compress than gzip, but decompression is equally fast. This makes Brotli ideal for static assets that are compressed once and served many times.

Compatibility

Brotli requires HTTPS — it only works over secure connections. Gzip works on both HTTP and HTTPS. If your site isn't on HTTPS yet, Brotli won't function.

How to Use the Brotli Checker

1. Enter the URL of the website you want to test
2. Click Check to analyze the server response
3. The tool displays whether Brotli compression is enabled
4. If Brotli is not detected, the tool shows what compression (if any) is being used — such as gzip or no compression

Common Use Cases

• SEO professionals auditing site performance and compression settings
• Web developers verifying that server or CDN Brotli configuration is working correctly
• Site owners checking if their hosting provider supports Brotli
• Performance engineers benchmarking compression across multiple domains
• Agencies auditing client websites for quick performance wins

How to Enable Brotli Compression

• Cloudflare — Brotli is enabled by default on all plans. Check Speed → Optimization → Content Optimization
• Nginx — Install the ngx_brotli module and add brotli on; to your config
• Apache — Use mod_brotli with AddOutputFilterByType BROTLI_COMPRESS
• CDNs — Most major CDNs (Cloudflare, Fastly, AWS CloudFront) support Brotli out of the box

Related Tools

• HTTP Headers Lookup — Inspect all response headers including Content-Encoding
• HTTP/2 Checker — Verify if your site supports the HTTP/2 protocol
• SSL Lookup — Check your SSL certificate (required for Brotli)
• Website Hosting Checker — Find out who hosts a website
• DNS Lookup — Check DNS records for any domain

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Brotli work on HTTP (non-HTTPS) sites?

No — Brotli compression only works over HTTPS connections. If your site doesn't have an SSL certificate, browsers won't request or accept Brotli-encoded responses. Use our SSL Lookup to verify your certificate.

Can I use both Brotli and gzip on the same server?

Yes — and this is recommended. Configure your server to serve Brotli to browsers that support it (via the Accept-Encoding: br header) and fall back to gzip for older clients.

Does Brotli affect SEO rankings?

Indirectly, yes. Brotli improves page load speed, which is a ranking signal in Google's algorithm. Faster sites also have lower bounce rates and better user engagement metrics.

How much faster will my site be with Brotli?

Results vary by content type, but most sites see a 15–25% reduction in transferred file sizes compared to gzip. For text-heavy pages, the improvement can be even greater.