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URL normalization settings

The Cloudflare dashboard provides the following settings to manage URL normalization:

  • Normalization type (default: RFC-3986)

    • Selects the type of normalization to perform:

      • RFC-3986 – Applies URL normalization strictly according to RFC-3986.

      • Cloudflare – In addition to what is defined in RFC-3986, applies the following URL normalization techniques:

        • Normalize back slashes (\) into forward slashes (/).
        • Merge successive forward slashes (for example, // will be normalized to /).

  • Normalize incoming URLs (default: On)

    • Configures the URLs of all incoming traffic to Cloudflare:

      • When enabled, all incoming URLs are normalized before they pass to subsequent Cloudflare features that can receive a URL as input, such as Page Rules, Firewall Rules, Workers, and Access.
      • When disabled, incoming URLs are not normalized before passing to subsequent Cloudflare features.

  • Normalize URLs to origin (default: Off)

    • Configures URLs sent to the origin:

      • When enabled, requests sent to the origin are normalized.
      • When disabled, requests sent to the origin are not modified.

    • You can only view and enable this option when Normalize incoming URLs is enabled.

Configuration examples

The following table shows how URL normalization settings affect incoming URLs before they pass to other Cloudflare features and to origin:

Incoming URL Normalization type Normalize incoming URLs Normalize URLs to origin URL passed to Cloudflare edge URL passed to origin
www.example.com/hello (any) Off Off www.example.com/hello www.example.com/hello
www.example.com/hello (any) On Off www.example.com/hello www.example.com/hello
www.example.com/hello (any) On On www.example.com/hello www.example.com/hello
example.com/%68ello (any) Off Off example.com/%68ello example.com/%68ello
example.com/%68ello (any) On Off example.com/hello example.com/%68ello
example.com/%68ello (any) On On example.com/hello example.com/hello
example.com/%68ello//pa\th RFC-3986 Off Off example.com/%68ello//pa\th example.com/%68ello//pa\th
example.com/%68ello//pa\th RFC-3986 On Off example.com/hello//pa\th example.com/%68ello//pa\th
example.com/%68ello//pa\th RFC-3986 On On example.com/hello//pa\th example.com/hello//pa\th
example.com/%68ello//pa\th Cloudflare Off Off example.com/%68ello//pa\th example.com/%68ello//pa\th
example.com/%68ello//pa\th Cloudflare On Off example.com/hello/pa/th example.com/%68ello//pa\th
example.com/%68ello//pa\th Cloudflare On On example.com/hello/pa/th example.com/hello/pa/th