Referer

Referer

The Referer HTTP request header contains an absolute or partial address of the page that makes the request. The Referer header allows a server to identify a page where people are visiting it from. This data can be used for analytics, logging, optimized caching, and more.

When you follow a link, the Referer contains the address of the page that owns the link. When you make resource requests to another domain, the Referer contains the address of the page that uses the requested resource.

The Referer header can contain an origin, path, and querystring, and may not contain URL fragments (i.e. "#section") or "username:password" information. The request's referrer policy defines the data that can be included. See Referrer-Policy for more information and examples.

Note: The header name "referer" is actually a misspelling of the word "referrer". See HTTP referer on Wikipedia for more details.

Warning: This header may has undesirable consequences for user security and privacy. See Referer header: privacy and security concerns for more information and mitigations.

Syntax

Referer: <url>

Directives

<url>

An absolute or partial address of the web page that makes the request. URL fragments (i.e. "#section") and userinfo (i.e. "username:password" in "https://username:[email protected]/foo/bar/") are not included. Origin, path, and querystring may be included, depending on the referrer policy.

Examples

Referer: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript
Referer: https://example.com/page?q=123
Referer: https://example.com/

Specifications

Browser compatibility

Desktop Mobile
Chrome Edge Firefox Internet Explorer Opera Safari WebView Android Chrome Android Firefox for Android Opera Android Safari on IOS Samsung Internet
Referer
Yes
12
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
length_limit_4096B
77
79
70
No
64
No
77
77
No
55
No
12.0

See also

© 2005–2021 MDN contributors.
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Referer