What is fbclid? Facebook's click ID, explained
fbclid is the Facebook Click Identifier — a unique token Meta appends when you tap a link on Facebook or Instagram. It lets the destination site report your visit back to Meta's ad system. The page loads identically without it; delete it freely, or let tdy do it on every copy.
Where it comes from
Click any outbound link inside Facebook, Messenger or Instagram and the URL arrives looking like this:
The token is unique to your click. If the destination site runs Meta's pixel, the visit — and what you do on the page — can be joined back to your ad profile. That's how "I looked at one product and now it follows me" happens across sites.
Why it spreads
The sneaky part: when you copy that URL from the address bar and send it to a friend, your click ID travels with it. Everyone who opens your forwarded link gets attributed to your original click — polluting Meta's data, sure, but also stamping your identity onto a link you thought was neutral.
Is it safe to remove?
Completely. fbclid carries no content — no page selection, no session you care about. The same goes for its siblings: Google's gclid, Microsoft's msclkid, TikTok's ttclid, Twitter's twclid. All click IDs, all deletable.
Removing it automatically
Hand-deleting a 60-character token from the middle of a URL is nobody's hobby. tdy — a tiny Mac menu-bar app — strips fbclid and every other click ID from links the moment you copy them, so what you paste is always the clean URL. It fixes broken social embeds in the same pass.
No more 300-character links.
tdy strips click IDs and tracking junk from every link you copy. Native, one-time purchase, no subscription.
Get tdy for Mac