Why Reddit Tracks Links
Reddit adds share UTMs and outbound wrappers so it can measure which post, app surface, or share action produced the click. That means the link you copy is often carrying Reddit's measurement layer with it.
Reddit routes external URLs through out.reddit.com, so it can log the off-site click and tie it to your session when you are signed in. Shared posts also carry utm_source=share into other feeds. The redirect fires whether you are signed in or not, so clean the Reddit link before you paste.
Before and After
Tracked link
https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/example?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x
Clean link
https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/example
Removed
Reddit adds share UTMs and outbound wrappers so it can measure which post, app surface, or share action produced the click. That means the link you copy is often carrying Reddit's measurement layer with it.
Pin the web cleaner as a progressive web app on Chrome, Edge, and Android, or install the iPhone, iPad, and Mac app for on-device cleaning, Share Sheet actions, Safari extension, QR scanning, and Shortcuts.
utm_source=share and related UTMsout.reddit.com redirect wrappersredd.it short links to the canonical post URLout.reddit.com/...&url=... - outbound redirect wrapperutm_source=share, utm_medium=web2x - share/click source tagsredd.it/... - Reddit short link wrapper for posts and commentsMany trackers appear mid‑redirect or are hidden in wrappers. Manual trimming misses those and can break links. Clean Links follows the chain and cleans the final URL safely.
No. Cleaning removes trackers and wrappers but preserves the destination.
It is an outbound redirect layer used for scanning and analytics. Clean Links unwraps this safely and shows the real URL.
The Apple app cleans Reddit links on-device. The web cleaner currently sends the link to the Clean Links API because the full rule engine is too large to ship to every browser right now. We do not log, store, or tie those requests to an account, and shortlinks are still resolved in an isolated, cookie-free context with a randomized user agent.
The cleaning rules are the same, but the Apple app has more system hooks: Share Sheet cleaning, Safari extension support, QR scanning, Shortcuts, Siri, and Mac clipboard tools. The web cleaner focuses on paste-and-clean in your browser today, and a browser-native WASM version is in progress.
Need to clean a link from any other site? Try the free link cleaner
Paste any link to strip trackers and unwrap short links. Works in any browser with no account; recent-link history stays in this browser.
Why we built Clean Links
Someone close to us scanned a QR code on a parking meter, typed in their card details, and lost the money before they realized anything was off. A sticker had covered the real code, and the link behind it went somewhere else. We're two engineers in the EU who've spent years building privacy-first apps, and that was the push. We wanted a fast way to see where a link or QR code really goes before you tap it, and to strip the trackers off the ones we share. Clean Links now covers both cases: the Apple apps scan and clean on your device, and the web cleaner lets you check a link in the browser without an account. It's free, and we'd rather earn a spot on your home screen than sell you out.
Two more apps from the same team.
Two more apps from the same team. Both run on your device.
Check AI-generated text and images in your browser. Free online checker, no account. Native iPhone and Mac apps too.
Check AI-generated text and images on iPhone and Mac. On-device, no account.
Run uncensored, open-source AI chat models on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Chats stay on your device. Your AI, your rules.
Join our Discord to see what we're building next.