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User agent

See the identification string your browser sends with every request, what it says about your browser and device, and what else a site can read.

Leave it empty to see your own. Handy for reading a line from a server log.
Your user agent appears here once the page has loaded.

You will see the exact string your browser sends, then the browser, engine, operating system and device type it describes. If nothing appears, check that JavaScript is allowed. To read a string from a log file, paste it into the field above.

What else your browser reveals

Client hint brands
Client hint platform
Client hint mobile
Languages
Timezone
Colour scheme preference
Screen size
Pixel ratio
Viewport size
Touch support
Cookies enabled
Connection type
Do Not Track
Global Privacy Control
Processor threads
Device memory
These values always describe the browser you are using now, even when you parse a pasted string. The script on this page reads them inside your browser and does not send them anywhere. Any site you visit can read the same values.

What a user agent is

A user agent string is a line of text your browser sends with every request to say what it is.

It travels in the User-Agent HTTP header, and scripts on a page can read the same text. Sites use it to choose between mobile and desktop layouts, to work around bugs in particular browsers, to count which browsers their visitors use, and to spot crawlers. It describes software, not a person. There is no name, account or address in it.

Why every string starts with Mozilla/5.0

In the 1990s many sites checked for Netscape, whose code name was Mozilla, and sent simpler pages to everyone else. Internet Explorer answered by calling itself Mozilla too. Browsers since then have copied the names of the ones before them so they would not be locked out: Safari says it is like Gecko, Chrome says it is Safari, and Edge says it is Chrome. The result is a string in which only one or two words are true. Here is Chrome on Windows, piece by piece:

PieceWhat it really says
Mozilla/5.0A leftover. Every browser sends it so that old sites do not turn it away.
(Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64)The system: Windows 10 or 11 on a 64-bit processor.
AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko)Compatibility claims inherited from Safari. The number has not changed in years.
Chrome/126.0.0.0The real browser and its major version.
Safari/537.36Another inherited claim, from the days when Chrome used Safari's engine.

User agent reduction and client hints

Detailed strings made visitors easier to tell apart, so browsers now send less. Chrome-based browsers report only the major version, say Android 10 and model K on every Android device, and freeze the macOS version at 10.15.7. Safari and Firefox freeze the macOS version too. Windows 11 identifies itself as Windows NT 10.0, which is why the result above says Windows 10 or 11.

In exchange, Chrome-based browsers offer client hints. By default they send three low-detail values in headers named Sec-CH-UA, Sec-CH-UA-Mobile and Sec-CH-UA-Platform: the browser brands, whether the device is mobile, and the platform name. A site that wants more, such as the full version, the real system version or the device model, has to ask for it. Firefox and Safari do not support client hints, so those rows read "Not exposed by this browser" there.

Fingerprinting in plain words

No single value on this page identifies you. Combined, they can. A browser version, language list, timezone, screen size and processor count together form a pattern that few other visitors share, and a site can recognise that pattern again without setting a cookie. That is fingerprinting.

  • Keep your browser up to date. The most common setup is the hardest to pick out of a crowd.
  • Use built-in protection. Safari, Firefox and Brave limit or blur some of these values on purpose.
  • Do not fake an unusual user agent. A rare string makes you stand out more, not less.
  • Do not rely on private windows. Their main job is to forget cookies and history when you close them. Most of the values above stay the same.

Common questions

Can I change my user agent?

Yes. The developer tools in desktop browsers can send a different string while they are open, and extensions can do it all the time. Sites may then give you the wrong layout or a download for the wrong system. Changing the string changes the label only. The engine underneath, and the way it behaves, stays the same.

Why does it say Windows 10 or 11 when I have Windows 11?

Both versions send Windows NT 10.0, so the string cannot separate them. Chrome and Edge can report the real platform version through client hints. When they do, this page adds it under the operating system row.

Why does my iPad show up as a Mac, or my Android phone as model K?

Safari on iPad asks for desktop sites by default, and to get them it sends the same string as a Mac. This page can still tell your own iPad apart because a Mac has no touch screen. On Android, Chrome-based browsers replaced the real version and model with the fixed values Android 10 and K as part of user agent reduction.

Can a site trust what the user agent says?

No. Any program can send any string, and many bots copy a browser's string exactly. That is why search engines tell site owners to confirm a crawler by its address, not its name: look up the hostname of the IP with reverse DNS, then check that the hostname points back to the same address. To see the headers a server sends back, use HTTP headers.