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.

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

• HTTP referer on Wikipedia
• Fetch: Request.referrerPolicy
• The obsolete Content-Security-Policy referrer directive.
• Same-origin policy
• Tighter Control Over Your Referrers – Mozilla Security Blog