LinkCleanhttps://example.com/article?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D&utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
After LinkCleanhttps://example.com/article
igshid
Social · Instagram · introduced ~2019 · Updated 2026-09-13
What is igshid (or igsh, igsi, or stkn)?
What igshid does
Instagram's Share → Copy Link adds ?igshid=<token> to every outbound URL — Reels, Stories, posts, profiles, and even the external links you tap through from someone's bio. The token encodes the sharing session; Meta joins it back to your Instagram account server-side when the recipient clicks.
Same architecture as Facebook's mibextid, X's t / s, YouTube's si: a per-share token used for Meta's first-party analytics, never for routing the page.
igshid, igsh, igsi — one token, renamed twice
Instagram has changed the name of this parameter twice without changing its job. The original web client wrote igshid; the app wrote igsh after it; the iOS share sheet writes igsi today. All three carry the same kind of base64 token, and all three say the same thing to Meta: this link travelled through a particular Instagram share.
Which name you get depends on where the link was copied, not on what it points at — a profile, a Reel, a post, or an external link from someone's bio can arrive under any of the three. A profile shared from the app today looks like instagram.com/<handle>?igsi=<token>, and the clean form is the handle on its own.
stkn — the fourth name, on post links
A post link copied from Instagram today arrives as instagram.com/p/<shortcode>/?stkn=<token>. The value is base64 over a short opaque id, the post is addressed entirely by the shortcode in the path, and the same name shows up on Threads links.
Whether stkn replaces igsi or simply sits alongside it on a different kind of link is not something we can state from the outside — we have seen it on post links, and igsi on profile links. Either way it is a share token and LinkClean removes it, so you do not have to care which.
One difference in how it is handled: igshid, igsh and igsi are stripped on every site, because a share id is built to travel onto whatever link was shared. stkn is four characters of plausible abbreviation — a site could reasonably use it for a session token — so LinkClean only strips it on Instagram and Threads, where its meaning is known.
Where you'll see it
Any link copied from Instagram, on any device. Often paired with utm_source=ig_web_copy_link (or a similar source UTM) when Meta's web client did the copying. The pair travels together — strip both.
How LinkClean removes it
All four names — igshid, igsh, igsi, stkn — ship default-on in LinkClean's social catalog, so you never have to know which era of the app produced the link you were sent. None has a legitimate non-tracking use on Instagram or Threads; the destination URL never reads them. The companion utm_source / utm_medium tail is stripped by the standard UTM rules.
Why it's worth knowing about
Instagram links are some of the most-forwarded URLs on the modern web. Every share you don't clean carries an attribution token onward to whoever you sent it to. They click → Meta records the click against your sharing session, then against theirs when they re-share.
Frequently asked
Does removing igshid break the link?
No. The destination only routes on the path; igshid lives in the query string and is read by Meta's analytics, not by the page you're visiting.
The link I was sent says igsi, not igshid — is that the same thing?
Yes. igsi is what Instagram's share sheet writes today, igsh is what the app wrote before it, and igshid is the original from the web client. Same token, same purpose, and LinkClean removes all three by default.
My Instagram link says stkn — is that the same thing?
It does the same job. stkn is the share token on post links copied from Instagram and Threads today, where igsi appears on profile links. LinkClean removes it by default on both sites, and the post still opens.
Is igshid personal data?
On Meta's side, yes — it ties back to your Instagram session and from there to your account. The URL itself doesn't name you.
Why does Instagram add it to every shared link?
Attribution. Meta wants to know which shares produce clicks and downstream conversions on partner sites — share is the channel they can't measure server-side otherwise.
What if I want to share an Instagram post itself?
The clean form instagram.com/p/<shortcode>/ or instagram.com/reel/<shortcode>/ survives stripping — the ?stkn= tail comes off and the shortcode stays. Same post, same content, no share token attached.
Clean tracking on iPhone, in one tap.
LinkClean strips 150+ vendor-specific tracking parameters from any link, from any app's share sheet — and preserves functional ones like hl, t (YouTube timestamp), and q (search). No account, on-device.
