LinkClean

How to clean an Instagram share link

Instagram share links carry an attribution token — stkn= on post links today, igsi= on profiles, igshid= on older ones — and often a utm_source=ig_web_copy_link tail. Strip them before forwarding, in one tap.

Ken Tominaga · Updated 2026-08-20

When you tap Share → Copy Link from Instagram — a Reel, a Story, a profile, even an external link from a bio — Meta appends a share token to the URL. The token ties the click back to your Instagram session for Meta's first-party analytics.

The name has changed repeatedly and the job has not: igshid on the old web client, igsh on the app after it, igsi on the share sheet, and stkn on a post link copied today. Whichever one you were sent, it comes out — stkn on Instagram and Threads, the other three anywhere.

The token often travels with utm_source=ig_web_copy_link or a similar attribution UTM. Both are tracking; both safely strippable.

  1. Use the LinkClean share-sheet action

    From the Instagram app — or anywhere — tap Share, scroll the actions row, and pick Clean URL. The cleaned link replaces the original on your clipboard. The destination is identical; the attribution token is gone.

  2. Or paste into the app to see what was stripped

    Open LinkClean, paste the Instagram link. The display calls the share token out as “stripped” — under whichever name it arrived — with any utm_* tail next to it. Copy the cleaned form.

  3. Or run Clean Clipboard from the widget

    Copy the link the usual way, then tap LinkClean's home-screen widget (or the Control Center toggle). The cleaned link replaces what's on your clipboard.

  4. Confirm the post still loads

    Open the cleaned link in a private tab. Same Reel, same Story, same profile — Instagram routes purely on the path (/p/<shortcode>/, /reel/<shortcode>/, /<handle>/), so dropping the ?stkn= tail changes nothing you can see. The query string was Meta's bookkeeping.

Why this matters more than the utm_*: igshid carries the *sharing-session identity* back to your Instagram account; utm_* carries channel attribution. Strip both, but if you only knew one, igshid is the one to know — every Instagram share you forward broadcasts who you are.

Skip the steps — LinkClean does it.

LinkClean strips tracking parameters from any link in one tap, from any app's share sheet. No account, on-device.

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