Neat URL
Neat URL removes tracking parameters from the URLs you open, like Google Analytics' utm_source, Facebook's fbclid and Google Ads' gclid. The page loads without them, so the link you bookmark, copy or share is clean too.
Download for Firefox (Firefox 140 or newer), download for Chrome (Chrome 121 or newer) or download for Edge (Edge 121 or newer).
Example
Before:
After:
How to use it
Neat URL works right after you install it: 170 well-known tracking parameters are removed by default. You only need the options if a website doesn't work, or if you want to remove more.
- Click the toolbar button to open the options page with the URL of the current tab in Test a URL. You see which parameters are removed, and you can add a rule for the ones that are left.
- Right-click the toolbar button to disable Neat URL (until the browser restarts), or to open the Log.
- The counter on the toolbar button shows how many URLs were cleaned in the current tab.
Almost every feature works in both browsers; see Browser support for the differences.
Privacy
Neat URL doesn't collect or send any data. It needs access to all websites to clean their URLs. The log of cleaned URLs is kept in memory only and is empty after a browser restart.
Options
The options page has the tabs Preferences, Appearance, Advanced and Log. Changes are kept until you click Save (or press Ctrl+S); the bar at the bottom shows when there are unsaved changes. The language of the options page can be chosen at the top right (the language of the browser by default).
- Test a URL: paste a URL to see which parameters Neat URL removes and which rules removed them. The test uses the preferences on the page, also before you save them. For every parameter that is left, it suggests a rule (
name for all websites, name@domain for that domain only, name=value@domain for that domain only when the parameter has that value); a click adds the rule to the blocked parameters.
- Blocked parameters: your own rules, see Parameter rules.
- Remove text fragments (off by default): remove the text that a link highlights on the page,
#:~:text=..., which search engines and "Copy link to highlight" add. https://example.com/page#intro:~:text=some%20words becomes https://example.com/page#intro: the anchor stays, and so do other directives after :~:. The page then no longer scrolls to that text.
- Websites: where Neat URL changes URLs. Choose "All websites, except these domains" (the default, the domain blacklist of earlier versions) or "Only these domains" (a whitelist; when the list is empty, Neat URL works on all websites). A domain also covers its subdomains, and wildcards work here too:
archive.* for archive.org, archive.ph and so on, *.archive.* also for web.archive.org. Each choice keeps its own list, so switching doesn't lose your domains; only the list of the chosen option is used.
- Default blocked parameters: a list per category with a search field. Uncheck a parameter or a whole category to keep it in URLs. (The same list as a file.) Turn off Use the default blocked parameters to remove only your own blocked parameters, also none that a new version adds; your choices in the list are kept.
- Below every list, the options page shows the number of items and warns about invalid rules, duplicates and parameters that are already a default.
Appearance:
- Icon animation, icon theme and the counter on the toolbar button, with its color.
Advanced:
- Change links in page (off by default): also clean the links in a page, so a copied link is clean too.
- Keep signed URLs (on by default): URLs with a signature parameter (
sig, hmac or a name that ends with signature, like X-Amz-Signature) are not changed, because the server rejects them after any change.
- Clean URLs inside parameters (off by default): also clean a URL that is the value of a parameter, for example
https://example.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fexample.org%2F%3Futm_source%3Dx becomes https://example.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fexample.org%2F. Some sites check that such a link was not changed (for example login redirects), so this is off by default.
- URL request types: the kinds of requests that are cleaned,
main_frame (the page in a tab) by default.
- Sync preferences: use the same preferences on every device where this option is on. They are stored with the account of the browser (Firefox Sync, or a Google or Microsoft account). Off by default.
- Import and export: save all preferences to a file, or load them from a file.
- Restore defaults: puts all preferences back to their default values (after Save).
Log:
- The last cleaned URLs, with the removed parameters struck through and the rules that removed them. Save log for a bug report stores the log in a file with the technical details (version, browser, engine, platform and your preferences).
Parameter rules
A parameter is a part of the URL after the ?, separated by &: in https://example.com/?utm_source=mail&id=5 the parameters are utm_source and id. In the options you only write the name, without ? or &, so ?ved becomes ved. There are a few exceptions to this rule (see below).
This is the beginning of the README. Read the rest at the original. Read the full README ↗
