This is a reference for the parameters that turn up on the end of URLs. Each entry says which system adds it, what it records, and whether removing it changes what loads.
The short answer for almost every entry below is that removing it changes nothing. The exceptions are marked, and they are the reason cutting everything after the question mark is a bad habit.
Advertising click identifiers
These are generated at the moment of a click and identify that click. They are useless on their own and become meaningful when the destination site runs the matching tracking script.
| Parameter | Added by | What it records | Safe to remove |
|---|---|---|---|
fbclid |
Meta | One click from Facebook or Instagram | Yes |
gclid |
Google Ads | One click on a Google advertisement | Yes |
wbraid |
Google Ads | Web-to-web click where user-level tracking is restricted | Yes |
gbraid |
Google Ads | App-to-web click, mainly from iOS | Yes |
dclid |
Google display and video products | One display advertisement click | Yes |
msclkid |
Microsoft Advertising | One click on a Bing advertisement | Yes |
ttclid |
TikTok | One click from a TikTok advertisement | Yes |
twclid |
X (Twitter) | One click on a promoted post | Yes |
li_fat_id |
One click, for LinkedIn's first-party ad tracking | Yes | |
epik |
One click from Pinterest | Yes | |
rdt_cid |
One click on a Reddit advertisement | Yes | |
ScCid |
Snapchat | One click from Snapchat | Yes |
yclid |
Yandex | One click from Yandex advertising | Yes |
Longer explanations: fbclid, gclid, wbraid and gbraid, msclkid, ttclid.
Share identifiers
These describe the act of sharing rather than the content. They are attached when somebody presses a share or copy button, and they propagate to everyone who receives the link afterwards.
| Parameter | Added by | What it records | Safe to remove |
|---|---|---|---|
si |
YouTube, Spotify | The share that produced this link | Yes |
igshid, igsh |
The share that produced this link | Yes | |
share_id |
The share that produced this link | Yes | |
mibextid |
Meta | Internal attribution for app shares | Yes |
web_id |
TikTok | A browser identifier belonging to the sharer | Yes |
sender_device |
TikTok | What device the sharer was using | Yes |
refer_share_id, refer_share_uin |
Temu | The sharing user's referral identity | Yes |
Longer explanations: the YouTube si parameter, igshid.
Campaign tags
Written by a person rather than generated by a machine. Readable, and the least concerning category on this list.
| Parameter | Added by | What it records | Safe to remove |
|---|---|---|---|
utm_source |
Whoever placed the link | The specific outlet | Yes |
utm_medium |
Whoever placed the link | The channel type | Yes |
utm_campaign |
Whoever placed the link | The campaign name | Yes |
utm_term |
Whoever placed the link | A paid search keyword | Yes |
utm_content |
Whoever placed the link | Which link variant was clicked | Yes |
utm_id |
Whoever placed the link | A campaign record identifier | Yes |
ref, source |
Varies | An informal source label | Yes |
Full explanation: UTM parameters explained.
Email platform parameters
The category most worth paying attention to, because several of these identify a subscriber rather than a click.
| Parameter | Added by | What it records | Safe to remove |
|---|---|---|---|
mc_cid |
Mailchimp | The campaign | Yes |
mc_eid |
Mailchimp | The individual recipient | Yes |
_hsenc, _hsmi |
HubSpot | Encoded recipient and campaign data | Yes |
mkt_tok |
Marketo | Encoded recipient and campaign data | Yes |
vero_id |
Vero | The individual recipient | Yes |
oly_enc_id, oly_anon_id |
Omeda | Recipient identity | Yes |
Full explanation: Mailchimp's mc_eid and mc_cid.
Retail and marketplace parameters
Long, numerous, and the reason shopping links are the worst offenders on the web.
| Parameter | Added by | What it records | Safe to remove |
|---|---|---|---|
tag |
Amazon | Affiliate account to credit | Yes |
ref, ref_ |
Amazon | Which page element you clicked | Yes |
pd_rd_*, pf_rd_* |
Amazon | Recommendation and merchandising session data | Yes |
qid, sr, keywords, crid |
Amazon | Your search query and result position | Yes |
spm |
Alibaba, AliExpress | Page position tracking | Yes |
aff_*, algo_* |
AliExpress | Affiliate and ranking experiment data | Yes |
_x_ads_channel, _bg_fs |
Temu | Advertising channel data | Yes |
irclickid |
Impact affiliate network | One affiliate click | Yes |
ranMID, ranEAID, ranSiteID |
Rakuten affiliate network | Affiliate attribution | Yes |
srsltid |
Google Shopping | A shopping listing click | Yes |
Related tools: amazon link cleaner. Longer explanation: cleaning AliExpress and Temu links.
Parameters that are not tracking
Cutting the query string blindly removes these too, which is how people break links.
| Parameter | Used by | What it does | Safe to remove |
|---|---|---|---|
v |
YouTube | The video ID | No |
t, start |
YouTube, Spotify | Playback start time | No, if you want the timestamp |
id |
Google Play | The app identifier | No |
q |
Search pages | The search query itself | No |
page, p |
Paginated content | Which page you are on | No |
img_index |
Which carousel image to open | No, if you meant a specific slide | |
lang, hl, gl |
Many sites | Language and region | No, usually worth keeping |
How to use this list
If you are cleaning a link by hand, work from the bottom table upward: check whether anything in the query string is load-bearing before you delete it.
If you would rather not, the link cleaner online applies all of the above. Paste a URL and it strips the tracking while keeping video IDs, product IDs, timestamps and search queries intact. There are dedicated pages for the four most common cases: Facebook, Amazon, YouTube and Google.
A note on completeness
This list is not exhaustive and cannot be. New parameters appear regularly, existing ones change format without announcement, and some platforms rotate them deliberately. The open-source rule sets maintained by browser extension projects are the best continuously updated reference, and they are worth consulting if you are trying to identify something that is not here.
I update this page when I add rules to the tool, which in practice means a few times a year.