# rlz — the Chrome install tag in your Google searches

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

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

> rlz is **a promotional tag Chrome adds to Google searches made from the address bar**. Unlike most of the search tail it is documented: Google says it is not unique to you, and that it records how Chrome was obtained, the week it was installed and the week of the first search. LinkClean strips it on Google's search domains.

## What Google says rlz is

This is the one parameter in a Google search URL with an official explanation. Chrome's privacy whitepaper describes a promotional tag, not unique to you or your device, that Chrome inserts in the searches you perform on Google, to measure searches and Chrome usage driven by a particular campaign. It appears as a parameter beginning `rlz=` when the search comes from the address bar.

According to the same document the tag contains how Chrome was obtained, the week Chrome was installed, and the week the first search was performed. It is generated by a library called RLZ, which Google open-sourced in 2010, and it looks like `1T4ADBR_enUS236US239`.

## What that reveals in a link you forward

Not who you are. But a forwarded search link with rlz attached does say that you use Chrome, roughly how you got it — a direct download, or bundled with a particular computer or partner — your browser's language and region, and about when you installed it.

None of it concerns the person you are sending the link to, and none of it is needed for the search to run.

## Why it is there at all

Distribution measurement. Google pays to have Chrome installed through different channels, and rlz lets it compare how many searches each channel produces. That is a question about Google's marketing, answered with a tag on your searches.

It usually travels with [gs_lcrp](https://linkclean.app/trackers/gs-lcrp/), Chrome's address-bar statistics, and with the tail Google's page adds itself: [sca_esv](https://linkclean.app/trackers/sca-esv/) and [ei](https://linkclean.app/trackers/ei/).

## 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.

## Example

Looks like this in a URL: `https://www.google.com/search?q=link+cleaner&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS1100US1100&ei=AbCdZfGhI&sclient=gws-wiz-serp`

After LinkClean: `https://www.google.com/search?q=link+cleaner`

## Frequently asked

**Is rlz a unique identifier?**

No, by Google's own description: the tag is not unique to you or your device. Many installs from the same channel in the same week share a value.

**What does rlz stand for?**

Google does not expand the name. RLZ is the name of the open-source library that generates the tag.

**Does every browser add rlz?**

No. It comes from Google Chrome. A Google search from Safari or Firefox does not carry it.

**Does removing rlz affect my search?**

No. It is a measurement tag for Google's distribution campaigns. The results are the same without it.


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