Developer API

Build with the CleanLinks API

Strip tracking parameters from any URL — free, open, no API key required. Call the endpoint directly from any language or platform.

Quickstart

No registration, no API key, no sign-up. Make a GET request with a URL-encoded url parameter.

Free & open — no API key needed

Simple GET request (any language, any tool):

curl "https://cleanlinks.thewebdexter.com/api/clean?url=https%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2F%3Futm_source%3Dnewsletter%26fbclid%3DIwAR2x"

Stable versioned endpoint (recommended for integrations):

curl "https://cleanlinks.thewebdexter.com/api/v1/clean?url=https%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2F%3Futm_source%3Dnewsletter%26fbclid%3DIwAR2x"

Response

{
  "success":      true,
  "cleaned":      "https://example.com/",
  "original":     "https://example.com/?utm_source=newsletter&fbclid=IwAR2x",
  "removed":      2,
  "bytesSaved":   42,
  "isHttps":      true,
  "wasUnwrapped": false,
  "unwrappedVia": null,
  "hopCount":     0,
  "rulesVersion": "3.0.0",
  "categories": {
    "Campaign / UTM": [{ "name": "utm_source", "value": "newsletter", "reason": "Global tracker" }],
    "Facebook / Meta": [{ "name": "fbclid", "value": "IwAR2x", "reason": "Global tracker" }]
  }
}

On error, the /api/v1/clean endpoint returns { "error": { "code": "...", "message": "..." } } with an appropriate HTTP status code. Full spec: /openapi.json

Reference

GET /api/v1/clean?url={encoded_url}

Stable, versioned endpoint. Open CORS — can be called directly from browser JavaScript. Breaking changes will ship under a new version path.

Parameter: url — required, percent-encoded absolute URL (max 4096 chars, http: or https: only).

GET /api/clean?url={encoded_url}

Legacy endpoint — same cleaning engine. Same parameters and response shape. Browser cross-origin calls require a X-Turnstile-Token header (the web cleaner handles this automatically). Non-browser callers (curl, Node.js, Python, iOS Shortcut) are unaffected.

Rate Limits

Rate limiting is enforced at the network edge. Fair-use applies — the API is intended for personal tools, scripts, and automations. High-volume or commercial use is prohibited under the Terms of Service. Cache results for URLs you clean repeatedly to minimise requests.

Examples

JavaScript (fetch):

const res = await fetch(
  '/api/v1/clean?url=' + encodeURIComponent('https://example.com/?utm_source=fb')
);
const { cleaned } = await res.json();

Python:

import urllib.request, urllib.parse, json

url = urllib.parse.quote('https://example.com/?utm_source=fb')
with urllib.request.urlopen(
    f'https://cleanlinks.thewebdexter.com/api/v1/clean?url={url}'
) as r:
    data = json.load(r)
    print(data['cleaned'])

Shell / curl:

curl -s "https://cleanlinks.thewebdexter.com/api/v1/clean?url=$(python3 -c \
  "import urllib.parse,sys; print(urllib.parse.quote(sys.argv[1]))" \
  "https://example.com/?utm_source=newsletter&fbclid=IwAR2x")" | jq .cleaned