# gclid — Google Ads' click ID, and how to remove

- Canonical: https://linkclean.app/trackers/gclid/
- Updated: 2026-07-22
- Author: Ken Tominaga (https://ken0nek.com)
- Get the app: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/linkclean/id6758604043

Parameter: `gclid` · Category: Ad-click identifiers · Vendor: Google Ads

> gclid is Google Ads' per-click identifier — added to every outbound click from Google Search ads, YouTube ads, and the Display Network. It exists to credit ad spend. Removing it never breaks the link.

## What gclid actually is

gclid stands for Google Click Identifier. When you click a Google Ads link — on Search, Shopping, YouTube, or the Display Network — Google appends ?gclid=<opaque token> to the destination URL. The token encodes the ad-account, the campaign, the ad-group, the ad itself, and the click event.

On the destination, Google Ads' conversion tag (or Google Analytics' linker, or the Ads landing-page experience script) reads gclid and uses it to credit the click to that ad. It's the bridge between “ad served” and “customer arrived” in Google's bookkeeping.

## Newer variants: gbraid and wbraid

Apple's App Tracking Transparency and Safari's restrictions on third-party cookies broke parts of Google Ads' classic gclid model. Google introduced gbraid (for iOS app-install attribution) and wbraid (for web on iOS) as more privacy-conscious replacements that work without a cross-site cookie.

All three are in LinkClean's default catalog. Stripping them keeps marketing analytics out of the URL on share — and out of someone else's browser when they open the link.

## What it leaks when you share the link

Forwarding a link with gclid attached carries the click-credit token into another person's session. If they land on a page running Google Ads conversion tracking, that tracking fires using *your* gclid — quietly inflating someone else's bookkeeping and tying their pageview to your ad-click context.

It's not personally identifying on its own, but the privacy-safe default is to share a link, not metadata about how you found it.

## How LinkClean removes it

gclid, gbraid, and wbraid all ship in LinkClean's default ads catalog and are stripped on every host. Same pipeline as fbclid, msclkid, ttclid, yclid — vendor-specific tokens that have no legitimate non-tracking use.

## Example

Looks like this in a URL: `https://example.com/sale?gclid=Cj0KCQjwxOnFBhCFARIsABf-9QyMaQwerty`

After LinkClean: `https://example.com/sale`

## Frequently asked

**Will removing gclid break the page?**

No. The page loads identically. gclid is only read by Google's conversion tracking scripts on the destination; the page server doesn't use it for anything.

**Does this affect prices I see?**

Not in any common case. gclid drives advertiser-side reporting (who paid for the click, which campaign worked) — it isn't a coupon code or a session ID for the merchant.

**Is gclid the same as fbclid?**

Same kind of thing, different platform. fbclid is Meta's click ID; gclid is Google Ads'. msclkid is Microsoft's, ttclid is TikTok's, yclid is Yahoo! JAPAN Ads' and Yandex's. LinkClean strips all of them by default.

**Why also strip gbraid and wbraid?**

They're the iOS-era replacements Google rolled out after ATT and Safari ITP closed the loopholes the classic gclid model relied on. Same job, same default-on treatment in LinkClean.


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LinkClean removes tracking parameters from links on-device — free to clean, one-time Pro. https://linkclean.app/ · Cite freely with attribution.