Google search parameters: the URL list with examples, and which still work

Google search parameters are the short codes after the ? in a Google search URL. q holds your search words. The others change the language, country, page, date range or type of results.

Most of them still work in October 2026. The big exception is num=100, which Google stopped honoring in September 2025. Below is the full list with an example for each, plus what we saw when we tested some of them on October 9, 2026.

What is the correct syntax for a Google search URL?

A Google search URL is the address https://www.google.com/search, then a ?, then parameters joined with &. Each parameter is a name, an equals sign, and a value.

https://www.google.com/search?q=coffee+shops&hl=en&gl=us

• ? starts the list of parameters.
• & separates one parameter from the next.
• Spaces become + or %20. Other special characters are percent-encoded, so : becomes %3A.
• The order of the parameters does not matter to Google.

Here is a real one. On October 9, 2026, DataForSEO, a large SERP API, sent this URL to Google for a US desktop search:

https://www.google.com/search?q=google%20search%20url%20parameters&hl=en&gl=US&ie=UTF-8&uule=w+CAIQIFISCQs2MuSEtepUEUK33kOSuTsc

Four parameters do the real work there: q, hl, gl and uule. The ie=UTF-8 part tells Google how the text is encoded.

Google search parameters list

The status column shows how we know each one works as of October 9, 2026:

• Tested: we fetched a US desktop Google page with it through DataForSEO’s API and saw the change.
• In live URLs: a big SERP API used it in its own Google requests that day.
• Reported: listed as working in Bright Data’s February 2026 guide, but we did not test it.

Search operators like site: and filetype: are not parameters. They go inside q. Our guide to Google search operators lists the ones that still work.

Results per page: what happened to num=100

num used to set how many results Google showed per page. Google stopped honoring it in September 2025, so a page now shows about 10 organic results.

Search Engine Roundtable first reported the change on September 12, 2025. At first the parameter worked about half the time, and then it stopped working for everyone. Google then told Search Engine Land the parameter “is not something that we formally support.”

This mattered most for rank trackers. They used num=100 to see the top 100 in one request. Now they load 10 pages instead. We saw this ourselves: on October 9, 2026, we gave DataForSEO a URL with num=100. It dropped the parameter, fetched 10 pages of 10, and billed $0.02, ten times its one-page price.

To reach later results by hand, use start. It counts from zero, so start=10 is page 2 and start=20 is page 3. If you track many keywords, this change affects your costs. We cover that in tracking rankings in bulk.

Language and location: hl, gl, lr, cr and uule

These five parameters are easy to mix up, because each one controls a different part of the search.

• hl sets the language of Google’s buttons and menus. hl=es gives a Spanish interface.
• gl sets the country. gl=gb asks for results as a UK searcher would see them.
• lr keeps only pages written in a language. lr=lang_fr means French pages only.
• cr keeps only pages from a country. cr=countryDE means pages from Germany only.
• uule sets an exact place, down to a city. It is an encoded place name.

Google documents the same names in its Custom Search API reference, so their meaning is clear. A UK page in English looks like this:

https://www.google.com/search?q=plumber&hl=en&gl=gb

gl stops at the country. For a city, you need uule. Our guide on how to change your Google search location shows how to build one for any city.

There is no reliable URL parameter for device. Google picks the mobile or desktop page from your browser. That is one reason mobile and desktop rankings differ.

Date range and verbatim: the tbs parameter

tbs holds Google’s search tools: time filters, custom dates and verbatim mode. These match the Tools menu under the search box, which Google describes in its search filters help page.

Our test: we searched google core update with tbs=qdr:w on October 9, 2026, US desktop. Every result that showed a date was from October 7 to 9, so the filter did its job.

Result type: tbm and udm

Google has two ways to pick a results tab: the older tbm parameter and the newer udm parameter.

Google never published a list of udm values. People mapped them by watching URLs, so treat them as subject to change.

udm=14 is the best known. It opens the Web filter Google added in May 2024. We tested it on October 9, 2026, with how to tie a tie, US desktop:

Many people use it to hide AI answers. We cover that use in how to turn off AI Overviews.

Filters: safe, filter, nfpr and pws

• safe=active turns on SafeSearch. safe=off turns it off where allowed.
• filter=0 shows results Google hides as too similar. It is the link behind “repeat the search with the omitted results included.”
• nfpr=1 stops Google from fixing your spelling.
• pws=0 asked Google not to personalize results. Google does not document it, and we could not confirm it changes anything today.

We tested nfpr with the typo pancake recipie. Without it, Google said “Showing results for pancake recipe” and searched the fixed words. With nfpr=1, it searched the words as typed and only offered “Did you mean.”

Why URL parameters are not enough for SEO checks

Parameters change what you ask Google for, but they do not change who is asking. Google still sees your IP address, your device and, if you are signed in, your history. Two people can open the same URL and get different pages.

For repeatable checks, use a tool that fetches the page from a fixed place and device. A SERP API does this with plain fields for location, language and device, so you skip building uule strings by hand. Ours returns up to 100 results per call and loads the extra pages for you, the job num=100 used to do.

For one quick look, a private window plus hl, gl and uule still gets you close.