Guides / Safety Box
What Is gclid, and Does Removing It Break Tracking?
Published August 24, 2026 · Toolsda
Have a link with gclid on it right now?Paste it into the URL Cleaner — gclid, gbraid, wbraid, and every other tracker are stripped automatically.What gclid is
gclid is a Google Click Identifier — a unique code Google Ads appends to a link the moment someone clicks a Google search ad or display ad. Example: https://example.com/product?gclid=Cj0KCQjw.... It lets Google Ads' reporting connect a later conversion (a purchase, a signup) back to the exact ad, keyword, and campaign that produced the click.
Who gclid actually benefits
Only the advertiser running the campaign and Google's own ad reporting. gclid tells them which spend worked; it does nothing for the person who clicked. That's the whole reason removing it before you re-share a link is safe — there's no functional behavior riding along with it, unlike, say, a YouTube video ID or an Amazon product ID mixed into the same URL.
Does removing gclid break the link, or "break tracking"?
It doesn't break the link — the destination page is determined entirely by the URL's path, and gclid plays no part in that. It does remove the advertiser's ability to attribute your specific click to their campaign, which is the entire point of stripping it. Nothing about the page you land on changes.
gbraid and wbraid — gclid's newer siblings
After Apple's App Tracking Transparency changes limited cross-app tracking on iOS, Google introduced gbraid (app-to-web clicks) and wbraid (web-to-app clicks) as privacy-adjusted replacements that serve the same attribution role gclid does on the web. All three are pure ad-click trackers and are removed the same way.
How to remove gclid — 3 steps
- Copy the link after clicking a Google ad — it'll usually carry
gclid=.... - Paste it into the URL Cleaner. Safe mode removes gclid, gbraid, wbraid, and any other ad-click ID on the same link.
- Copy the cleaned result and share that instead.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does removing gclid break the link?
No — gclid carries no routing information. The page that loads is determined by the URL path, not by gclid; the destination renders identically with or without it.
I clicked a normal Google search result, not an ad — why does the link have gclid?
It shouldn't, generally — gclid is specific to paid Google Ads clicks. If a link you got from an organic search result carries a tracking parameter, check for utm_* instead; that's added by the site's own marketing, not by Google.
What are gbraid and wbraid?
Privacy-preserving variants of gclid, introduced for iOS 14+ app-to-web and web-to-app attribution after Apple's App Tracking Transparency changes. They serve the same conversion-tracking purpose as gclid and are removed the same way.
Who benefits from gclid — the advertiser or me?
Only the advertiser and Google's ad platform. gclid lets Google Ads report which ad, keyword, and campaign led to a conversion. It adds nothing for the person clicking, which is why removing it from a link before you re-share it costs you nothing.