URL safety checker — look at a link before you open it.
Paste a link to follow it from our server and check its address and redirect chain for common warning signs of phishing and abuse.
Check a link
Live checkTurn any long URL into a short, trackable link.
Once the destination checks out, shorten it with click analytics by source, location and device, all in one dashboard.
How can a link be risky?
Most malicious links give themselves away in the address or the path they take.
Phishing links rely on looking familiar: a well-known brand name inside a different domain, a lookalike character from another alphabet, or a long hostname that pushes the real domain out of sight.
Others hide behind a chain of redirects through shorteners and ad networks, land on an unencrypted page, or trigger a file download instead of showing a page.
This tool checks for those structural signs, compares every address in the chain with Google Safe Browsing, and shows the full chain. No list is complete and it cannot judge a page's content, so a clean result is not a guarantee. When in doubt, don't open the link and go to the site directly.
Common questions
Does a clear result mean the link is safe? +
No. It means no warning signs were found and the address isn't on Google's lists right now. A brand-new malicious site can look perfectly normal, so treat the result as one input, not a guarantee.
Does it use Google Safe Browsing? +
Yes, when it's available. Every address in the redirect chain is compared with Google's Safe Browsing lists of suspected phishing and malware sites. The tool also inspects the structure of the link and checks our own abuse blocklist.
Is it safe to paste a malicious link here? +
Yes. The link is requested by our server, so your device doesn't connect to the site, and the page itself isn't run or shown.
What should I do with a risky link? +
Don't open it, and don't enter credentials on the page it leads to. If it came from a message pretending to be a company, go to the company's site directly and report the message.