Referrer-Policy

The Referrer-Policy HTTP header controls how much referrer information (sent via the Referer header) should be included with requests.

Header type Response header
Forbidden header name no

Syntax

The original header name Referer is a misspelling of the word "referrer". The Referrer-Policy header does not share this misspelling.

Referrer-Policy: no-referrer
Referrer-Policy: no-referrer-when-downgrade
Referrer-Policy: origin
Referrer-Policy: origin-when-cross-origin
Referrer-Policy: same-origin
Referrer-Policy: strict-origin
Referrer-Policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin
Referrer-Policy: unsafe-url

Directives

no-referrer
The Referer header will be omitted entirely. No referrer information is sent along with requests.
no-referrer-when-downgrade (default)
This is the default behavior if no policy is specified, or if the provided value is invalid. The origin, path, and querystring of the URL are sent as a referrer when the protocol security level stays the same (HTTP→HTTP, HTTPS→HTTPS) or improves (HTTP→HTTPS), but isn't sent to less secure destinations (HTTPS→HTTP).
origin
Only send the origin of the document as the referrer.
For example, a document at https://example.com/page.html will send the referrer https://example.com/.
origin-when-cross-origin
Send the origin, path, and query string when performing a same-origin request, but only send the origin of the document for other cases.
same-origin
A referrer will be sent for same-site origins, but cross-origin requests will send no referrer information.
strict-origin
Only send the origin of the document as the referrer when the protocol security level stays the same (HTTPS→HTTPS), but don't send it to a less secure destination (HTTPS→HTTP).
strict-origin-when-cross-origin
Send the origin, path, and querystring when performing a same-origin request, only send the origin when the protocol security level stays the same (HTTPS→HTTPS), and send no header to a less secure destination (HTTPS→HTTP).
unsafe-url
Send the origin, path, and query string when performing any request, regardless of security.

This policy will leak potentially-private information from HTTPS resource URLs to insecure origins. Carefully consider the impact of this setting.

Integration with HTML

You can also set referrer policies inside HTML. For example, you can set the referrer policy for the entire document with a <meta> element with a name of referrer:

<meta name="referrer" content="origin">

Or set it for individual requests with the referrerpolicy attribute on <a>, <area>, <img>, <iframe>, <script>, or <link> elements:

<a href="http://example.com" referrerpolicy="origin">

Alternatively, a noreferrer link relation on an a, area, or link element can be set:

<a href="http://example.com" rel="noreferrer">

Integration with CSS

CSS can fetch resources referenced from stylesheets. These resources follow a referrer policy as well:

  • External CSS stylesheets use the default policy (no-referrer-when-downgrade), unless it's overwritten via a Referrer-Policy HTTP header on the CSS stylesheet’s response.
  • For <style> elements or style attributes, the owner document's referrer policy is used.

Examples

Policy Document Navigation to Referrer
no-referrer https://example.com/page anywhere (no referrer)
no-referrer-when-downgrade https://example.com/page https://example.com/otherpage https://example.com/page
https://mozilla.org https://example.com/page
http://example.org (no referrer)
origin https://example.com/page anywhere https://example.com/
origin-when-cross-origin https://example.com/page https://example.com/otherpage https://example.com/page
https://mozilla.org https://example.com/
http://example.com/page https://example.com/
same-origin https://example.com/page https://example.com/otherpage https://example.com/page
https://mozilla.org (no referrer)
strict-origin https://example.com/page https://mozilla.org https://example.com/
http://example.org (no referrer)
http://example.com/page anywhere http://example.com/
strict-origin-when-cross-origin https://example.com/page https://example.com/otherpage https://example.com/page
https://mozilla.org https://example.com/
http://example.org (no referrer)
unsafe-url https://example.com/page?q=123 anywhere https://example.com/page?q=123

Specifications

Specification Status
Referrer Policy Editor's draft

Browser compatibility

Update compatibility data on GitHub
DesktopMobile
ChromeEdgeFirefoxInternet ExplorerOperaSafariAndroid webviewChrome for AndroidFirefox for AndroidOpera for AndroidSafari on iOSSamsung Internet
Referrer-PolicyChrome Full support 56Edge No support NoFirefox Full support 50IE No support NoOpera Full support 43Safari Full support 11.1WebView Android Full support 56Chrome Android Full support 56Firefox Android Full support 50Opera Android Full support 43Safari iOS No support NoSamsung Internet Android Full support 7.2
same-originChrome Full support 61Edge No support NoFirefox Full support 52IE No support NoOpera Full support 48Safari Full support 11.1WebView Android Full support 61Chrome Android Full support 61Firefox Android Full support 52Opera Android Full support 45Safari iOS No support NoSamsung Internet Android Full support 7.2
strict-originChrome Full support 61Edge No support NoFirefox Full support 52IE No support NoOpera Full support 48Safari Full support 11.1WebView Android Full support 61Chrome Android Full support 61Firefox Android Full support 52Opera Android Full support 45Safari iOS No support NoSamsung Internet Android Full support 7.2
strict-origin-when-cross-originChrome Full support 61Edge No support NoFirefox Full support 52IE No support NoOpera Full support 48Safari Full support 11.1WebView Android Full support 61Chrome Android Full support 61Firefox Android Full support 52Opera Android Full support 45Safari iOS No support NoSamsung Internet Android Full support 7.2

Legend

Full support  
Full support
No support  
No support
  • From version 53 onwards, Gecko has a pref available in about:config to allow users to set their default Referrer-Policy — network.http.referer.userControlPolicy.
  • From version 59 onwards (See #587523), this has been replaced by network.http.referer.defaultPolicy and network.http.referer.defaultPolicy.pbmode.

Possible values are:

  • 0 — no-referrer
  • 1 — same-origin
  • 2 — strict-origin-when-cross-origin
  • 3 — no-referrer-when-downgrade (the default)

See also

Last modified:

, by MDN contributors
Related Topics
  1. HTTP
  2. Guides:
  3. Resources and URIs
    1. Identifying resources on the Web
    2. Data URIs
    3. Introduction to MIME Types
    4. Complete list of MIME Types
    5. Choosing between www and non-www URLs
  4. HTTP guide
    1. Basics of HTTP
    2. Overview of HTTP
    3. Evolution of HTTP
    4. HTTP Messages
    5. A typical HTTP session
    6. Connection management in HTTP/1.x
    7. Protocol upgrade mechanism
  5. HTTP security
    1. Content Security Policy (CSP)
    2. HTTP Public Key Pinning (HPKP)
    3. HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS)
    4. Cookie security
    5. X-Content-Type-Options
    6. X-Frame-Options
    7. X-XSS-Protection
    8. Mozilla web security guidelines
    9. Mozilla Observatory
  6. HTTP access control (CORS)
  7. HTTP authentication
  8. HTTP caching
  9. HTTP compression
  10. HTTP conditional requests
  11. HTTP content negotiation
  12. HTTP cookies
  13. HTTP range requests
  14. HTTP redirects
  15. HTTP specifications
  16. Feature policy
  17. References:
  18. HTTP headers
    1. Accept
    2. Accept-CH
    3. Accept-CH-Lifetime
    4. Accept-Charset
    5. Accept-Encoding
    6. Accept-Language
    7. Accept-Patch
    8. Accept-Ranges
    9. Access-Control-Allow-Credentials
    10. Access-Control-Allow-Headers
    11. Access-Control-Allow-Methods
    12. Access-Control-Allow-Origin
    13. Access-Control-Expose-Headers
    14. Access-Control-Max-Age
    15. Access-Control-Request-Headers
    16. Access-Control-Request-Method
    17. Age
    18. Allow
    19. Alt-Svc
    20. Authorization
    21. Cache-Control
    22. Clear-Site-Data
    23. Connection
    24. Content-Disposition
    25. Content-Encoding
    26. Content-Language
    27. Content-Length
    28. Content-Location
    29. Content-Range
    30. Content-Security-Policy
    31. Content-Security-Policy-Report-Only
    32. Content-Type
    33. Cookie
    34. Cookie2
    35. Cross-Origin-Resource-Policy
    36. DNT
    37. DPR
    38. Date
    39. Device-Memory
    40. Digest
    41. ETag
    42. Early-Data
    43. Expect
    44. Expect-CT
    45. Expires
    46. Feature-Policy
    47. Forwarded
    48. From
    49. Host
    50. If-Match
    51. If-Modified-Since
    52. If-None-Match
    53. If-Range
    54. If-Unmodified-Since
    55. Index
    56. Keep-Alive
    57. Large-Allocation
    58. Last-Modified
    59. Link
    60. Location
    61. Origin
    62. Pragma
    63. Proxy-Authenticate
    64. Proxy-Authorization
    65. Public-Key-Pins
    66. Public-Key-Pins-Report-Only
    67. Range
    68. Referer
    69. Referrer-Policy
    70. Retry-After
    71. Save-Data
    72. Sec-WebSocket-Accept
    73. Server
    74. Server-Timing
    75. Set-Cookie
    76. Set-Cookie2
    77. SourceMap
    78. Strict-Transport-Security
    79. TE
    80. Timing-Allow-Origin
    81. Tk
    82. Trailer
    83. Transfer-Encoding
    84. Upgrade-Insecure-Requests
    85. User-Agent
    86. Vary
    87. Via
    88. WWW-Authenticate
    89. Want-Digest
    90. Warning
    91. X-Content-Type-Options
    92. X-DNS-Prefetch-Control
    93. X-Forwarded-For
    94. X-Forwarded-Host
    95. X-Forwarded-Proto
    96. X-Frame-Options
    97. X-XSS-Protection
  19. HTTP request methods
    1. CONNECT
    2. DELETE
    3. GET
    4. HEAD
    5. OPTIONS
    6. PATCH
    7. POST
    8. PUT
    9. TRACE
  20. HTTP response status codes
    1. 100 Continue
    2. 101 Switching Protocols
    3. 103 Early Hints
    4. 200 OK
    5. 201 Created
    6. 202 Accepted
    7. 203 Non-Authoritative Information
    8. 204 No Content
    9. 205 Reset Content
    10. 206 Partial Content
    11. 300 Multiple Choices
    12. 301 Moved Permanently
    13. 302 Found
    14. 303 See Other
    15. 304 Not Modified
    16. 307 Temporary Redirect
    17. 308 Permanent Redirect
    18. 400 Bad Request
    19. 401 Unauthorized
    20. 402 Payment Required
    21. 403 Forbidden
    22. 404 Not Found
    23. 405 Method Not Allowed
    24. 406 Not Acceptable
    25. 407 Proxy Authentication Required
    26. 408 Request Timeout
    27. 409 Conflict
    28. 410 Gone
    29. 411 Length Required
    30. 412 Precondition Failed
    31. 413 Payload Too Large
    32. 414 URI Too Long
    33. 415 Unsupported Media Type
    34. 416 Range Not Satisfiable
    35. 417 Expectation Failed
    36. 418 I'm a teapot
    37. 422 Unprocessable Entity
    38. 425 Too Early
    39. 426 Upgrade Required
    40. 428 Precondition Required
    41. 429 Too Many Requests
    42. 431 Request Header Fields Too Large
    43. 451 Unavailable For Legal Reasons
    44. 500 Internal Server Error
    45. 501 Not Implemented
    46. 502 Bad Gateway
    47. 503 Service Unavailable
    48. 504 Gateway Timeout
    49. 505 HTTP Version Not Supported
    50. 506 Variant Also Negotiates
    51. 507 Insufficient Storage
    52. 508 Loop Detected
    53. 511 Network Authentication Required
  21. CSP directives
    1. CSP: base-uri
    2. CSP: block-all-mixed-content
    3. CSP: child-src
    4. CSP: connect-src
    5. CSP: default-src
    6. CSP: font-src
    7. CSP: form-action
    8. CSP: frame-ancestors
    9. CSP: frame-src
    10. CSP: img-src
    11. CSP: manifest-src
    12. CSP: media-src
    13. CSP: navigate-to
    14. CSP: object-src
    15. CSP: plugin-types
    16. CSP: prefetch-src
    17. CSP: referrer
    18. CSP: report-to
    19. CSP: report-uri
    20. CSP: require-sri-for
    21. CSP: sandbox
    22. CSP: script-src
    23. CSP: script-src-attr
    24. CSP: script-src-elem
    25. CSP: style-src
    26. CSP: style-src-attr
    27. CSP: style-src-elem
    28. CSP: trusted-types
    29. CSP: upgrade-insecure-requests
    30. CSP: worker-src
  22. CORS errors
    1. Reason: CORS disabled
    2. Reason: CORS header 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' does not match 'xyz'
    3. Reason: CORS header 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' missing
    4. Reason: CORS header ‘Origin’ cannot be added
    5. Reason: CORS preflight channel did not succeed
    6. Reason: CORS request did not succeed
    7. Reason: CORS request external redirect not allowed
    8. Reason: CORS request not HTTP
    9. Reason: Credential is not supported if the CORS header ‘Access-Control-Allow-Origin’ is ‘*’
    10. Reason: Did not find method in CORS header ‘Access-Control-Allow-Methods’
    11. Reason: Multiple CORS header 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' not allowed
    12. Reason: expected ‘true’ in CORS header ‘Access-Control-Allow-Credentials’
    13. Reason: invalid token ‘xyz’ in CORS header ‘Access-Control-Allow-Headers’
    14. Reason: invalid token ‘xyz’ in CORS header ‘Access-Control-Allow-Methods’
    15. Reason: missing token ‘xyz’ in CORS header ‘Access-Control-Allow-Headers’ from CORS preflight channel
  23. Feature-Policy directives
    1. Feature-Policy: accelerometer
    2. Feature-Policy: ambient-light-sensor
    3. Feature-Policy: autoplay
    4. Feature-Policy: camera
    5. Feature-Policy: display-capture
    6. Feature-Policy: document-domain
    7. Feature-Policy: encrypted-media
    8. Feature-Policy: fullscreen
    9. Feature-Policy: geolocation
    10. Feature-Policy: gyroscope
    11. Feature-Policy: layout-animations
    12. Feature-Policy: legacy-image-formats
    13. Feature-Policy: magnetometer
    14. Feature-Policy: microphone
    15. Feature-Policy: midi
    16. Feature-Policy: oversized-images
    17. Feature-Policy: payment
    18. Feature-Policy: picture-in-picture
    19. Feature-Policy: speaker
    20. Feature-Policy: sync-xhr
    21. Feature-Policy: unoptimized-images
    22. Feature-Policy: unsized-media
    23. Feature-Policy: usb
    24. Feature-Policy: vibrate
    25. Feature-Policy: vr
    26. Feature-Policy: wake-lock
    27. Feature-Policy: webauthn
    28. Feature-Policy: xr