Help Centre

TWDxCleanLinks is a free link-cleaning service that strips tracking parameters from URLs. When you copy a link from a shopping site, social network, search engine, or email newsletter, it often contains hidden extra data — like which ad you clicked, your session ID, or which campaign sent you — embedded in the URL as query parameters.

TWDxCleanLinks removes that extra data before you share the link, so nothing about your browsing behaviour leaks to whoever receives it. You get a shorter, cleaner URL that works exactly the same as the original.

Yes. The web cleaner, iOS Shortcut, desktop CLI, and public API are all completely free for personal use. There is no account to create, no credit card required, and no sign-up of any kind. The service is sustained by voluntary donations — no ads, no subscriptions, no data selling.

Commercial use of any kind is not permitted. See the Terms of Service for details.

No. There is no account system. Paste a URL and the clean version appears instantly — nothing to register, log in to, or verify. This applies to all tools: web cleaner, iOS Shortcut, CLI, and API.

TWDxCleanLinks is available on every major platform:

• Any web browser — use the Web Cleaner on desktop or mobile
• iOS — the free iOS Shortcut integrates with the Share Sheet in any app
• macOS, Linux, Windows, Android — the CLI clipboard monitor automatically cleans every URL you copy
• Developers & AI tools — the public API works from any language, script, or AI assistant

No. URLs you submit for cleaning are processed and immediately discarded — nothing is retained after the response is sent. No personal data, no browsing history, no logs of what you cleaned.

The only exception: if you tap the "Report incorrect clean" button, the specific URL is saved to flag it for review by the team. This is voluntary and only happens when you explicitly click Report. See the Privacy Policy for full details.

Over 60 confirmed tracking-only parameters, including:

• Campaign/UTM tags: utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_content, utm_term, and others
• Facebook: fbclid, fb_action_ids, and related ad-click identifiers
• Google: gclid, gad_source, and related ad-click identifiers
• TikTok: ttclid and related parameters
• Microsoft/Bing: msclkid
• Amazon: affiliate tags, session identifiers, and recommendation trackers
• YouTube: the si tracking parameter
• Twitter/X: ref_src, ref_url, and similar
• Email marketing: click-tracking, list, and subscriber identifiers from major ESPs
• Many more across dozens of domains and ad platforms

The ruleset is updated regularly as new trackers are identified. If you find a parameter that should be removed, use the Report button in the cleaner to flag it.

Go to /Cleaner/. Paste any URL into the input field at the top of the page. The clean version appears automatically — no button to press. Click the Copy button to copy it to your clipboard.

You can also paste a URL on the homepage using the inline demo cleaner — tap "Try it yourself" on the demo card.

The cleaner requires a full, valid URL that starts with http:// or https://. If you pasted a partial address (e.g., just example.com/page without the protocol), it won't be recognised.

Try copying the full URL from your browser's address bar, then pasting it again. If the issue persists, check that you haven't accidentally copied extra whitespace before or after the URL.

The URL may not contain any known tracking parameters — not every link has trackers. The cleaner only removes parameters that are confirmed to be tracking-only. Parameters that are functional (e.g., page=2, id=123, q=search+term) are intentionally preserved because removing them would break the link.

If you believe a parameter in the URL is a tracker that should have been removed but wasn't, use the Report incorrect clean button below the result to flag it for review.

After cleaning, a row of coloured indicators appears:

• Trackers stripped — the number of tracking parameters removed from the URL
• Bytes saved — how many fewer characters the clean URL has compared to the original
• Hops — how many redirects were followed to surface the real destination (shown when the original URL was a shortener or affiliate link)
• Safe / Unsafe — the result of a security check against a known malware and phishing blocklist

Some URLs are shorteners (e.g., bit.ly/…) or affiliate redirect links that point to a middleman service before taking you to the real page. The cleaner detects these, follows the redirect chain (up to 10 levels deep), and returns the final real destination URL — with all tracking parameters stripped along the way.

The "Unwrapped" notice appears when this happened. The "Hops" indicator shows how many redirects were followed.

Once the clean URL appears, click the Copy button to the right of it. The button briefly shows "Copied!" to confirm. You can then paste the clean URL wherever you need it.

You can also click on the URL text itself to select it and copy manually.

Cleaning a simple URL normally completes in well under a second. If the URL is a redirect or shortener link, the cleaner needs to follow the redirect chain, which depends on how quickly the destination server responds. Some servers are slow, adding a few seconds.

If it's taking unusually long, wait up to 10 seconds. If it times out or fails, try again. Persistent slowness across multiple URLs may indicate a temporary service issue — try again in a few minutes.

Common causes:

• The URL is malformed or doesn't start with http:// or https://
• The destination server was unreachable when the cleaner tried to follow a redirect
• A temporary service issue

Check that your URL is complete and valid. If the error persists across different URLs after a minute or two, the service may be briefly unavailable. Try again shortly.

The first time you use the web cleaner in a session, a lightweight invisible bot-check runs silently in the background. You won't see anything — it completes automatically without any action from you. This protects the service from automated abuse without inconveniencing real users.

If you see a visible challenge, simply follow the prompt (usually a single click). This can happen in certain browser configurations. Once completed, cleaning works normally for the rest of your session.

If you're using a strict content blocker or privacy extension, it may interfere with the bot check. Try disabling it for this page if cleaning isn't starting.

After cleaning, the cleaner fetches the page title, description, and thumbnail for the destination URL and shows them as a small preview card. This helps you verify you're sharing the right page before sending the link.

The thumbnail is fetched server-side, which means the destination website never sees your IP address when the preview loads — an extra privacy layer.

If no preview appears, the destination page may not have the necessary metadata, or the server may have blocked the preview request. This doesn't affect the clean URL.

Go to the Downloads page and tap the Get Shortcut button under the iOS tab. The Shortcuts app will open and show you an "Add Shortcut" prompt. Tap Add Shortcut — that's it.

Requires iOS 15 or later. The Shortcuts app comes pre-installed on all supported iPhones and iPads.

In any iOS app — Safari, Chrome, Mail, Instagram, wherever you see a link — tap the Share button (the square with an arrow pointing up). In the Share Sheet that appears, tap Clean Link.

The cleaned URL is immediately copied to your clipboard. You'll typically see a brief notification confirming it. You can now paste the clean URL anywhere.

After adding the shortcut, it may not appear at the top of your Share Sheet by default. To make it easy to find:

1. Open the Share Sheet from any app
2. Scroll to the bottom row and tap Edit Actions…
3. Find Clean Link in the list and tap the green + to add it to favourites
4. It will now appear near the top of your Share Sheet

Yes, this is expected. The shortcut sends the URL to the TWDxCleanLinks service to clean it, which requires a network request. Tap Allow when prompted. Without internet access, the shortcut cannot function.

iOS 15 or later. The Shortcuts app (which powers the shortcut) is available on all iPhones and iPads running iOS 15+. If you're on an older version, update your device to access the shortcut.

Occasionally, the Shortcuts app may delay writing to the clipboard on some device or iOS configurations. Try these steps:

• Run the shortcut from the Shortcuts app directly (rather than the Share Sheet) — the result is shown on screen and you can copy it manually
• Check if your device settings restrict clipboard access for Shortcuts
• If the issue happens consistently, try removing and re-adding the shortcut

The clipboard monitor is a small background program that watches your clipboard. Whenever you copy a URL (anything starting with http:// or https://), it automatically sends that URL through the cleaning engine and replaces your clipboard contents with the clean version.

The result: every link you copy is silently cleaned before you paste it — no manual steps, no opening a browser tab, no interruption to your workflow.

Visit the Downloads page and select your platform — macOS, Linux, Windows, or Android. Each tab has step-by-step installation instructions with the exact commands to run. Installation typically takes under 2 minutes.

After installation, the clipboard monitor registers as a background service that starts automatically when you log in. Full start, stop, and restart commands for each platform are listed on the Downloads page under your platform's section.

Complete uninstall instructions are on the Downloads page for each platform. The steps remove both the binary and the startup service registration so the monitor no longer runs in the background.

No. The CLI only acts on clipboard content that looks like a URL — specifically, strings that begin with http:// or https://. All other clipboard content (plain text, passwords, images, files, code snippets) is ignored entirely and never touched.

When it does process a URL, only that URL is sent to the cleaning service. Nothing is stored after the cleaned result is returned. See the Privacy Policy for full details.

Send a GET request to:

GET /api/clean?url=YOUR_URL_HERE

The url parameter must be URL-encoded. No API key or authentication header is required for personal use. See the API section on the homepage for a full example with the response format.

A JSON object with the following fields:

• success — true if the URL was cleaned successfully
• cleaned — the clean URL (string)
• original — the URL you submitted (string)
• removed — count of tracking parameters removed (number)
• bytesSaved — how many bytes smaller the clean URL is (number)
• categories — an object mapping category names (e.g., "Campaign / UTM", "Facebook") to arrays of the removed parameter names

Yes. The public API is rate-limited to 20 requests per minute and 120 requests per hour per IP address. This is sufficient for personal tools, browser extensions, and scripts. These limits apply to all users — no higher-limit tier is available.

You've exceeded the rate limit. Wait a minute and try again. To avoid hitting the limit:

• Space out your requests — don't send them all at once in a burst
• Add a small delay (e.g., 100–200ms) between requests in loops
• Cache results for URLs you've already cleaned

If you regularly need higher throughput, ensure your use case is personal — commercial use is not permitted regardless of volume.

No. No API key is required — just call the endpoint directly. See the API reference for the full request/response format.

No. Commercial use — meaning use in a product sold to others, in an automated pipeline for a business, or to generate revenue — is strictly prohibited. TWDxCleanLinks is for personal use only. See the Terms of Service for the full list of prohibited uses.

400 / 422 errors usually mean the URL was not provided, is malformed, or couldn't be parsed. Check that:

• The url query parameter is present
• The URL is properly percent-encoded (use encodeURIComponent() in JavaScript)
• The URL includes the protocol: https://example.com, not just example.com

CORS errors from a browser extension or web app: The API permits cross-origin requests from browsers. Make sure you're not accidentally modifying the request headers in a way that triggers a preflight that fails. Direct server-to-server calls (curl, Node.js, Python, etc.) are unaffected by CORS.

After cleaning your URL, the cleaner checks the destination domain against a security DNS blocklist maintained by a third-party security provider. This blocklist contains domains known to be associated with malware, phishing, and other malicious activity.

The result appears as a coloured chip: a green Safe badge if the domain is not flagged, or a red Unsafe badge if it is. The check runs in the background automatically — you don't need to do anything to trigger it.

The domain was not found on any known malware or phishing blocklist at the time of the check. This is a reassuring sign for the vast majority of links.

It does not guarantee the link is completely safe — newly created malicious domains may not yet appear on any blocklist. For high-stakes decisions, always verify with a dedicated security scanner.

Do not visit or share the URL. The domain has been flagged by a reputable security blocklist as associated with malware or phishing.

If you received this link from someone, consider letting them know it may have been compromised. If you believe the flag is a mistake, verify the URL using a dedicated security scanner before proceeding.

Yes — occasionally, legitimate domains are wrongly listed by security blocklists (known as a "false positive"). This is relatively rare but does happen, particularly with newly registered or recently compromised-then-recovered domains.

This is outside TWDxCleanLinks' control — the blocklist data comes from an independent third-party security provider. If you are certain the link is safe, you can cross-check using a tool like Google Safe Browsing or VirusTotal before proceeding.

No. The safety screening is a supplementary indicator — a quick first-look against a known-bad domain list. It is not a comprehensive security scan, and it does not scan the content of the page, check for drive-by downloads, or detect all types of threats.

For important decisions (e.g., financial links, links received from strangers), always use a dedicated antivirus scanner or a service like VirusTotal in addition to the indicator shown here. The safety note beneath the cleaner reflects this.

The safety check runs asynchronously after the URL is cleaned, and results are cached per domain. If the check hasn't completed yet when the result appears, the indicator may be absent. It typically appears within 1–2 seconds.

If it consistently doesn't show for a particular domain, it may mean the domain check timed out. This is a fail-safe: the cleaner assumes a domain is safe when it can't get a definitive answer, rather than blocking you unnecessarily.

Use the report button when:

• A tracking parameter was not removed that you believe should have been (e.g., a known tracker remained in the cleaned URL)
• A parameter was removed that appears to be functional — the cleaned URL broke or led to the wrong page
• An affiliate or shortener link was not unwrapped when you'd expect it to be

Only use the button for URL-cleaning issues. It is not for general feedback or questions.

After cleaning a URL in the web cleaner, click the Report incorrect clean button that appears below the result. The bot check runs silently in the background for a moment, then the URL is automatically submitted for review. There's no form to fill in — one click is all it takes.

You'll see the button label change to confirm the report was received.

The URL is added to a review queue. During routine maintenance (typically every 72 hours), reported URLs are reviewed by the team. Where a genuine issue is confirmed — a missing rule, an incorrect rule, or a new tracker pattern — the cleaning ruleset is updated and the fix is deployed.

You don't receive a notification when the fix goes live, but the URL should clean correctly after the next update.

Rule updates happen on a regular maintenance cycle — changes don't take effect immediately. If you submitted your report recently, give it a few days.

Some edge cases (unusual redirect chains, domain-specific trackers with ambiguous parameters) may take longer to analyse and resolve safely without risking false positives on similar URLs.

The report button uses the same invisible bot-check as the cleaner. If the check fails, the report can't be submitted. Common causes:

• A content blocker or privacy extension is interfering — try disabling it for the TWDxCleanLinks domain
• You're using a VPN or proxy — these occasionally trigger stricter bot-detection
• A temporary service interruption

Try refreshing the page and attempting the report again. If the error persists, try from a different browser or network.

The Report incorrect clean button in the cleaner is the right channel for URL-cleaning issues — it feeds directly into the review queue and is the fastest path to a fix.

For general questions, the Help Centre covers most topics. Community discussion is available on Reddit.

TWDxCleanLinks does not collect, store, or log personal data. When you submit a URL for cleaning, the cleaned result may be cached globally (keyed only by the URL itself — no user identity, IP address, or session data is attached). This cache is used purely to speed up repeat requests to the same URL and expires automatically.

The one deliberate exception: if you click the Report incorrect clean button, the specific URL you are reporting is saved to a review queue. This is entirely voluntary, happens only when you explicitly click Report, and is used solely to improve cleaning rules. Reported URLs are cleared after each maintenance cycle.

No. TWDxCleanLinks does not set any cookies — not session cookies, preference cookies, or tracking cookies. Your browser's cookie jar is untouched by this service.

The one piece of browser storage used is localStorage (not a cookie), described in the question below.

One item: cl_rules — a cached copy of the URL-cleaning ruleset stored in your browser's localStorage for up to 24 hours. This lets the web cleaner run the full cleaning engine directly in your browser without re-downloading the ruleset on every visit.

It contains only the list of tracking parameters and domain rules — no personal data, no browsing history, nothing tied to you as an individual. It is never transmitted back to the server. It expires automatically after 24 hours and is refreshed on the next page load.

No personally identifying information is sent anywhere. The safety check works by querying only the domain name of the destination URL via a security DNS resolver (security.cloudflare-dns.com). Your full URL, path, query string, and IP address are never part of that query.

Results are cached per domain for 24 hours, so the same domain is not queried repeatedly. The resolver's privacy policy governs their DNS service — they do not sell DNS query data.

None, of any kind. There are no analytics scripts (no Google Analytics, no Plausible, no Mixpanel), no advertising networks, no pixels, and no third-party tracking tools loaded on any page.

All fonts are self-hosted — there are no calls to Google Fonts, Adobe Fonts, or any font CDN. The only external network request your browser makes is to the Turnstile bot-check service for the invisible bot-check, which is governed by their privacy policy. There is nothing else.

When the web cleaner shows a link preview (title, description, and thumbnail), the thumbnail image is fetched server-side by our servers — your browser never contacts the source website directly for the image. The destination server (Amazon, YouTube, a news site, or any other) sees only a server IP address, not yours.

Preview data is served to your browser and immediately discarded on the server side — nothing is cached or stored. If no preview appears, it means the destination page lacked the necessary metadata or blocked the server-side fetch; this does not affect your clean URL.

Yes. TWDxCleanLinks is based in Ireland and operates under Irish and EU law. This means the service is subject to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as applied in Ireland and enforced by the Data Protection Commission (DPC) — one of the strictest data protection regimes in the world.

In practice, GDPR compliance reinforces what is already the design of the service: no personal data is collected without a lawful basis, no data is shared with third parties for marketing or profiling, and data subjects have rights of access, erasure, and objection. Because TWDxCleanLinks collects no personal data in the ordinary course of operation, most GDPR obligations are met by default.

If you have a data protection question or wish to exercise a GDPR right, you can refer to the Privacy Policy or reach out through the official channels linked from the main site.

Because privacy tools should be accessible to everyone — not locked behind a subscription. Tracking is a problem that affects all internet users regardless of budget or technical knowledge. Putting a paywall in front of a privacy tool would be counterproductive.

This has been a deliberate decision from day one, and there are no plans to change it. Infrastructure costs are real, but they are covered through voluntary donations — not by charging users or selling their data.

Entirely through voluntary donations. Personal users who find the tool genuinely useful can choose to contribute any amount via Stripe. Every donation goes directly toward hosting and infrastructure costs. No donation is ever required or expected.

No ads, no sponsored results, no data brokering — ever.

If you'd like to help keep TWDxCleanLinks running and free for everyone, a small donation goes a long way. There is no minimum amount — even a one-off contribution covers real hosting costs. You can donate securely via Stripe:

Support TWDxCleanLinks →

Beyond donations, the most valuable thing individual users can do is share the tool with people who'd benefit — friends, colleagues, or communities who care about privacy. Word of mouth is how independent tools like this grow without a marketing budget.

Yes. There is no subscription or recurring commitment. Donate what feels right, once, and you're done. The Stripe link accepts any amount — no minimum required.