# gs_lcrp — Chrome's address-bar search stats in the URL

- Canonical: https://linkclean.app/trackers/gs-lcrp/
- Updated: 2026-10-01
- Author: Ken Tominaga (https://ken0nek.com)
- Get the app: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/linkclean/id6758604043

Parameter: `gs_lcrp` · Category: Analytics IDs · Vendor: Google Chrome

> gs_lcrp is added **by Chrome, not by Google's results page**: when you search from the address bar, Chrome encodes statistics about how you used the search box and sends them along as `gs_lcrp=`. It is visible in Chromium's own source code. LinkClean strips it on Google's search domains.

## Where gs_lcrp comes from

Most of the tail on a Google search URL is added by Google's page. This one is added by the browser. Chromium's source describes it directly: when you pick or type a search in the address bar, Chrome fills in a message it calls `SearchboxStats`, serialises it, Base64-encodes it, and reports it as the `gs_lcrp` parameter of the search URL. The source says it is reported for logging purposes, and only to a search provider reached over HTTPS.

It sits beside an older parameter with the same job, `aqs`, and usually next to `sourceid=chrome` and `oq=` — what you had typed before choosing a suggestion.

## What it says about you

The message is about the interaction, not the query: it records how the search box was used on the way to this search. The exact fields are not listed in any user-facing document, and the encoded value can run past a hundred characters.

In 2025 the Brave browser project filed it as a privacy problem inherited from Chromium, on the grounds that every address-bar search to Google was carrying an encoded tracking value that Safari's searches do not.

## Why it shows up in a link you copy

Because it is in the address bar. Search from Chrome's address bar, copy the results URL to send to someone, and gs_lcrp goes with it — along with [rlz](https://linkclean.app/trackers/rlz/), which says how your copy of Chrome was installed. Searches started from google.com's own search box carry a sibling, `gs_lp`, instead.

## How LinkClean removes it

Default-on, and scoped to Google's search domains (`google.com` and the main country domains). The same letters on any other site are left alone, and `q=`, `tbm=`, `udm=` and `hl=` — the parts that decide what the search shows — are never touched.

`gs_lp`, `aqs`, `oq` and `sourceid` are removed by the same scoped rule set.

## Example

Looks like this in a URL: `https://www.google.com/search?q=link+cleaner&oq=link+clea&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWU&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8`

After LinkClean: `https://www.google.com/search?q=link+cleaner&ie=UTF-8`

## Frequently asked

**Is gs_lcrp added by Google or by my browser?**

By the browser. Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers build it when you search from the address bar. A search typed into google.com's own box does not carry it.

**What is the difference between gs_lcrp and aqs?**

Both report address-bar search statistics from Chrome. aqs is the older text format; gs_lcrp carries the same kind of data as an encoded message. A URL can contain either or both.

**Does removing gs_lcrp change the results?**

No. It is a logging value. The search is q=.

**Why is ie=UTF-8 left in the cleaned link?**

Because it is not tracking. It declares the character encoding of the query, so LinkClean leaves it alone.


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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.