Online User Agent parser
What is a browser User Agent
A user agent is a piece of string that describes the software/browser making the request to a website. It includes descriptions regarding the operating system and device type on which the browser is running.
How does the User Agent work?
Whenever you type the website's URL in the address bar of your web browser, your browser makes a request for that file that includes a user agent field in its HTTP header. By just looking at the user agent string, a web server can determine what web browser, operating system, and device you are using.
Web servers then use that information to decide how to serve different web pages to different web browsers and operating systems, the process known as content negotiation. Content negotiation means how to display a particular content in a different version based on device and browser compatibility.
User Agent details
The information the user agent exposes is the browser name, operating system, vendor, and/or version of the requesting user agent. Its string has no standard format, but the common format for all web browser's UA is as follows:
Mozilla/5.0 (
Mozilla/5.0 is the general token that says that the browser is Mozilla-compatible. For historical reasons, almost every browser today sends it. Platform exhibits the system details, i.e. Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, etc.
Example of User Agent string
Chrome UA string:
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/51.0.2704.103 Safari/537.36
Firefox UA string:
Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X x.y; rv:42.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/42.0
Opera UA string:
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/51.0.2704.106 Safari/537.36 OPR/38.0.2220.41
Microsoft Edge UA string:
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/91.0.4472.124 Safari/537.36 Edg/91.0.864.59
Safari UA string:
Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 13_5_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/13.1.1 Mobile/15E148 Safari/604.1
Internet Explorer UA string:
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 9.0; Windows Phone OS 7.5; Trident/5.0; IEMobile/9.0)
What is the online User Agent parser used for?
Detection and decoding a user-agent string is a bit tricky for non-tech personnel. The user agent parser allows every non-tech individual to interpret the user agent string. In this article, we are considering Freenerdtools' User Agent Parser tool. You can use this tool to parse any user agent string you want to understand.
How to parse User Agent string using FreeNerdTools
Freenerdtools' UA parser interface is self-explanatory and easy to use. It doesn't require any installation and can run on all devices. By default, the tool should detect and get your browser UA. You can still lookup a different UA string. Simply enter the UA data in the text box, and press submit button to decode technical information in human-readable form.
Example:
User agent code: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/108.0.0.0 Safari/537.36
Results:
Browser: Chrome 108.0.0.0
Operating system: Windows 10.0
Device type: Desktop
Switch or hide User Agent in Chrome
To switch user agent on Chrome, use the extension "User-Agent Switcher and Manager". From here, you can change the UA information you want. For example, you can change the device status from desktop to mobile if you prefer seeing mobile versions of sites, so they load quicker.
This extension allows you to spoof your browser "user-agent" string to a custom designation, making it impossible for websites to know specific details about your browsing arrangement.