Exclude URL Query Parameters in Google Analytics 4

Updated: March 28th, 2025

In Universal Analytics (GA3), a feature called “Exclude URL query parameters” allowed you to remove unwanted parameters from the URLs and have cleaner reports.

When I wrote this blog post, this feature was not available by default in Google Analytics 4 (there’s data redaction, but it’s not a complete replacement for “Exclude URL query parameters”). But there is a workaround that I will explain in this article (it involves Google Tag Manager). If you are using GTAG, I will briefly give you some directions at the end of this tutorial.

Also, at the end of this blog post, I will share a list of the most common URL parameters you might want to consider excluding.

Video tutorial

If you prefer video content, here’s a tutorial from my YouTube channel.

Table of contents

Here’s what you will learn in this article

• Why are URL query parameters a problem?
• Why is the GA4 Data Redaction feature not enough?
• Identifying URL query parameters that you want to exclude
• Custom template
• Create a variable that excludes query parameters
• Update the GA4 configuration tag
• Test the setup
• What if you use GTAG?
• Popular query parameters you might want to exclude
• Final Words

Why are URL query parameters a problem?

URL query parameters are not bad by nature. They are handy. For example, if someone submits a form on a page, they might be redirected to a page example.com/signup?success=true.

Since the success=true query parameter is in the URL, we can see in Google Analytics reports that this was a successful form submission. That’s useful.

But many URL parameters give no direct benefit to us in the GA reports. They are important for other tools (like Linkedin Ads, Facebook, Mailchimp, etc.), but they bring no value to analysis in GA.

For example, if a visitor lands on your website from Facebook, the page URL will contain an additional parameter fbclid. So instead of seeing mysite.com/pricing in your reports, you will see mysite.com/pricing?fbclid=sdfghjkluytresvbjk4567890dcvb. If another visitor comes to your site, he/she will see a different fbclid value in the URL – mysite.com/pricing?fbclid=ihgvefb98yg3ebfji8y3hefnk.

Even though both users landed on the same /pricing page, Google Analytics will show these as two unique URLs in the reports. That applies if you use dimensions such as Page path + query string or Page Location.

FB uses fbclid to track visitors.

Sure, you could use a dimension called Page path (that does not contain query parameters) but maybe I want to analyze data including *some* query parameters. I don’t want to see those parameters that pollute my reports, like fbclid, _hsenc, mkt_tok, mc_cid, etc.

That’s where the “Exclude URL query parameters” feature is useful. You remove what’s unwanted while you still keep important query parameters (such as success=true from the previous example).

The Process

Here is the process for how you can exclude URL query parameters in GA4:

• Step #1: Identify URL query parameters
• Step #2: Import a custom template in GTM that will exclude parameters
• Step #3: Create a variable that will exclude URL query parameters
• Step #4: Update Google Tag and GA4 event tags
• Step #5: Test the setup

Now, let’s take a closer look at every step.

Why is the GA4 Data Redaction feature not enough?

Data redaction if better than nothing. That’s for sure. But it’s not ideal to exclude unwanted URL query parameters. Let me illustrate. You have three URLs of the same page:

• example.com/contact
• example.com/contact?fbclid=123
• example.com/contact?xyz=true

It’s the same page, but you see three unique rows in your GA4 report.

If you use GA4 Data Redaction to redact fbclid and xyz, then your report will show the following URLs:

• example.com/contact
• example.com/contact?fbclid=(redacted)
• example.com/contact?xyz=(redacted)

See the problem? You still have three unique URLs in your reports. But if you implement what I explain in this article, you will see just one URL: example.com/contact.

Identifying URL query parameters that you want to exclude

First, you need to identify what URL query parameters should be excluded. That can be done with a custom report. Go to Explore > Blank.

Import Page path + query string (or Page location) dimension by clicking the Plus icon here:

Then, import Views in the Metrics section.

If you want to learn more about Free Form Exploration reports, read this.

Now, double-click both on the dimension and on the metric. This will add them to the “Rows” and “Values” sections of the Variables tab.

Filter down the report to show only those URLs that contain any query parameter. This means that Page Path + Query String must contain a question mark.

In the “Filters” section, add a filter with the following condition: Page Path + Query strings contains ?

Now you have the report of URLs where any query parameter is present.

Select to show more rows and write down the parameters you no longer wish to see.

That list will be later used in this blog post.

Custom template

Since GA4 does not have the built-in feature at the moment (when I am writing this blog post), we will use Google Tag Manager to exclude URL query parameters. This means that your GA4 also must be installed with GTM.

Log in to your Google Tag Manager web container’s interface and go to Templates.

Then click Search Gallery in the Variable Templates section.

Find the template called Trim Query. It was created by Ayudante, a Tokyo-based consulting and mobile software development company. Big thanks to them!

Click Add to Workspace and then Add.

Create a variable that excludes query parameters

By using the aforementioned custom template, let’s create a variable. Go to Variables > New > Variable configuration and select “Trim Query” as a variable type.

Select Page URL as a Target URL (because this variable will take the Page URL and remove specific parameters). Keep all other settings as they are.

Note: this variable does not affect the page URL visitors see in the browser address bar. It will return a cleaner URL as a value, which we will use in GA4 tag(s).

Now we need to list all the query parameters. Take the list you prepared in the chapter “Identifying URL query parameters that you want to exclude”. And list those items one by one. One row = one parameter that should be excluded.

Important: you might be tempted to lowercase the value of this variable:

Don’t do that if you are running Google Ads and you are importing conversion data from GA4. Lowercasing the page_location will also affect the value of the gclid parameter (which is case-sensitive). If you lowercase the URL, your Google ads attribution won’t work.

Save the variable. I usually name it Page URL excluding unwanted query parameters.

Update the Google Tag and GA4 event tags

When Google Analytics 4 is implemented, it automatically tracks things like page_location. But you can overwrite that. In the GA4 configuration tag that you should already have (if not, read this guide), add a new parameter page_location and set the aforementioned custom variable as its value.

Save the tag.

Also, include this parameter in all GA4 event tags in your Google Tag Manager container. You can either manually include it in each tag…

… or you could create a GA4 event settings variable, insert and manage the page_location parameter there, and then use that event settings variable in all GA4 event tags. This will be more convenient in the long run because if you ever need to make any change in the settings variable, all GA4 event tags will inherit those changes (if, of course, those tags use that variable).

To configure this, first go to Variables > New > Google Tag: Event Settings and enter the following configuration:

If you already have a Settings Variable, then update it (instead of creating a new variable). Save the variable.

Then edit all your GA4 event tags to use that settings variable:

Test the setup

It’s time to test if everything is working properly. Click the Preview button at the top right corner of the GTM interface (to enable the Preview mode).

Then, enter the URL of your website and include several query parameters that you have excluded. You can also include some parameter that should still be displayed in the reports. All query parameters should be connected with &. Example: yoursite.com?fbclid=12345&xyz=888. Click Connect.

Once your GA4 tags have fired, go to Google Analytics > Admin > Debugview. Find your device, check the most recent events, and check if their page_location value does not contain the excluded parameters.

If everything is working fine, publish your GTM container by clicking the SUBMIT button and then completing all the other necessary steps.

What if you use GTAG?

Then, take a look at this documentation. Your developer must write custom code that sends the page_location parameter in the gtag code (without unwanted URL parameters). Your role here could be to prepare a list of unwanted parameters that a developer should later exclude.

Also, tell the developer that in the future, that list might be updated, and he/she will need to include those updates in the code.

Popular query parameters you might want to exclude

I have a little bonus for you. Some URL parameters are common and popular among multiple websites so it can be a good practice to exclude them beforehand (even if you don’t see them now in your GA4 reports).

This list (in no particular order) is not definitive, but it can help:

• gtm_debug (Google Tag Manager)
• fbclid (Facebook). Important: if you use GA4 events to send data to the server-side GTM endpoint and then send it to Facebook Conversions API, then do not exclude fbclid.
• mc_cid (Mailchimp)
• mc_eid (Mailchimp)
• __s (Drip)
• __hssc (HubSpot)
• __hstc (HubSpot)
• __hsfp (HubSpot)
• _hsenc (HubSpot)
• _ke (Klaviyo)
• hsCtaTracking (HubSpot)
• igshid (Instagram)
• ml_subscriber (MailerLite)
• ml_subscriber_hash (MailerLite)
• msclkid (Microsoft)
• omnisendContactID (Omnisend)
• s_cid (Adobe)
• ef_id (Adobe)
• twclid (Twitter)

Alternative: excluding all query parameters except what you allow

The solution that I have just explained requires occasional maintenance. This means that maybe, in the future, new query parameters will appear in your reports, and you will need to exclude them, too.

If you don’t want that maintenance, there’s an alternative. You can exclude all query parameters except those you want to use.

For that, the Trim Query template has a white list feature.

Here, you should enter only those parameters that you want to see. Everything else will be removed.

But be careful with this. If someone in the future adds some important query parameter to your website (or maybe Google Analytics 4 starts using some new important parameter), it will not be included in the reports/tracking.

Here are the parameters that you should always add to this variable (if you use the whitelist):

• utm_medium, utm_source, utm_campaign, and all other parameters listed here
• gclid
• dclid
• _gl
• _ga

Exclude URL Query Parameters in Google Analytics 4: Final Words

Will Google Analytics 4 offer a built-in feature to exclude query parameters? I hope so. Maybe when you are reading this guide, that feature is already available (in that case, please let me know in the comments. Maybe I just forgot to update this article 🙂 ).

But the lack of a built-in feature does not mean we cannot solve it ourselves. With this workaround, you can still have cleaner URLs in GA4 reports.

Keep in mind that this implementation will apply only to future data. Your historical data will still contain those unwanted URL query parameters.

Also, one more thing for those who use Google Analytics 4 is to send the data to their server-side endpoint and then send it to the Facebook Conversions API. If you are doing this, then the method I have explained should NOT be used; otherwise, fbclid will not be sent to FB.