How to View Full URLs in the Browser

By default, browsers hide parts of the URLs from people. It’s possible to show them by changing the settings though.

I think it’s important for the browser to show full URLs, because small details matter with SEO and Web development, and if you aren’t able to see the details, it’s easier to misunderstand what is going on.

Show Full URLs in Firefox

One reason that I recommend Firefox for Web development and SEO is that it’s easy to get Firefox to show the full URLs.

In Firefox’s address bar, enter the following term:

about:config

Ignore the warning about the warranty if there is one.

In the search box at the top of the page, type the word trim.

You should see a setting named browser.urlbar.trimURLs.

Make sure that it’s set to false. If it says true, then double-click it to change it to false.

Here’s a screenshot:

If it worked correctly, you should see full URLs in the address bar like this for example.com. (Note the https:// and the trailing slash.)

Show Full URLs in Chrome

Unfortunately, it isn’t possible to show full URLs in Chrome. Even if you right click on the address bar and choose the setting, it will hide some parts of URLs, like trailing slashes. When copying the URL and pasting it somewhere, it can be different than what Chrome displays.

For example, this screenshot shows Chrome (Chromium) with “Always Show Full URLs” turned on, but the browser is still hiding the trailing slash. You can only see it if you copy and paste the URL somewhere else.

Most browsers are based on Chromium (Chrome, Edge, Brave) so they likely have the same problems.

Safari isn’t based on Chromium, but it masks more of the URLs than other browsers, so I wouldn’t recommend Safari if you need to inspect URLs.

If you want to be sure you are seeing full URLs, I’d recommend the Firefox method from the top of this page.