URL Parser

How to parse a URL

1. Paste a URL in URL to analyze. It is parsed as you type; you can also press Enter or click Parse URL.
2. Read the parts: Protocol, Hostname, Port, Host (with port), Origin, Username, Password, Path and Fragment (#).
3. Check the Path segments list and the Query parameters table, which shows each key and value decoded, next to the Raw text.
4. Under Edit and rebuild, change a key or a value, click Add a parameter or Remove, or edit the fragment. The Rebuilt URL updates as you type.
5. Click Copy to copy the new URL.

If you paste an address without a scheme, such as example.com/page, the tool assumes https:// and says so.

The parts of a URL

The tool uses the browser’s built-in URL parser, which follows the WHATWG URL Standard, so it sees the address exactly as a browser does. Take https://ann:secret@shop.example.com:8080/en/products?size=M#reviews:

• Protocol (https:) is the scheme that tells the browser how to fetch the resource.
• Username and Password (ann, secret) are optional credentials. The password is masked by default; tick Show password to see it. Browsers now strip or refuse such credentials in links, and you should never share a URL that contains one.
• Hostname (shop.example.com) is the server name. Internationalised domain names are shown in their punycode form (xn--…), which is what DNS uses.
• Port (8080) is shown when the URL gives one. Otherwise the tool notes the scheme’s default port: 80 for http and ws, 443 for https and wss, 21 for ftp. A port equal to the default, such as :443 on https, is dropped by the parser.
• Host (with port) combines both, and Origin is scheme + host + port, the unit browsers use for security rules such as CORS.
• Path (/en/products) is split into Path segments, each one percent-decoded, so caf%C3%A9 reads café.
• Fragment (#) (reviews) points to a part of the page. It is never sent to the server.

Query parameters

The query string is split on &, and each pair on the first =. Keys and values are decoded the way HTML forms encode them: %XX sequences become characters and + becomes a space. Repeated keys, common for filters and multi-select fields (size=M&size=L), are all kept and labelled “(repeated 1/2)”, “(repeated 2/2)” in order. A key without = is shown with an empty value. When a sequence cannot be decoded, the raw text is shown instead.

Editing and rebuilding

The editor starts with the current parameters. Empty rows are ignored. The new query string is encoded like a form submission, as URLSearchParams does: spaces become + and reserved characters such as &, = or # are percent-encoded, so a value can safely contain them. This is handy to remove tracking parameters, change a page number or build test links. When the password is hidden, it is masked in the Rebuilt URL box too, but Copy copies the real URL.