See where a link really goes before you click.

A free Chrome extension that shows where a link really goes before you click it. It follows short links and redirects, checks the link against public phishing and malware lists, and asks Jev, TypeSafe AI’s decision model, about links no list knows. If a link looks like a scam, LinkGuard warns you and asks before opening it.

Rest your pointer on it with LinkGuard installed, or paste it into the checker on this page. LinkGuard follows the link to where it really lands, looks it up in public phishing and malware lists, and gives you a clear answer such as Safe, Check first or Scam.

Yes. There is no account and nothing to pay.

Yes, through the website. Paste a text, email or link into it and it checks the links in it (up to 8). On Android, add LinkGuard to your home screen from Chrome and you can also share messages and links to it. On iPhone, add it to your home screen from Safari, copy the message and tap Paste and check. Only the web addresses in a message are sent for checking.

Yes. LinkGuard’s server follows short links and redirects, up to four hops, and shows where they land, so you see the real site before your browser goes anywhere.

No. LinkGuard only sends the link you hover, focus or click, that link’s text, and the page title (with email addresses and long numbers taken out). It never reads form fields, passwords or cookies, and nothing else from the page is sent.

Chrome’s Safe Browsing warns you when you open a page on Google’s list of known dangerous sites. LinkGuard works earlier: it shows where a link goes while you hover, checks it against three public phishing and malware lists, and has Jev judge links no list knows yet. They work well together, so keep Safe Browsing switched on.

A click waits up to 2.5 seconds for a verdict. If none arrives and the address itself has warning signs (a short link, an unusual ending, an IP address), LinkGuard asks before opening. Otherwise the click goes through, so browsing never gets stuck.

No tool does. Some links get a grey “Check first” instead of Safe even when LinkGuard finds no scam signs: pages on free site builders, shared documents and other places where anyone can publish, sites that use a brand’s name without being its site, and sites the registry says were registered in the last 30 days. If Jev can’t answer, only well-known sites are called Safe. Keep your browser’s own protection switched on too.

OpenPhish, PhishTank and URLhaus, three public lists of reported phishing and malware links. LinkGuard keeps a copy on its server, refreshed about once an hour while LinkGuard is in use and at least once a day, so looking a link up never sends it to the list providers.

Links that point away from the host you’re on (another site, or another part of it like shop.example.com), and same-host links that carry another site’s address (like /url?q=…), including links inside frames and most web components. Links inside other apps, and javascript: or data: links, aren’t checked.

Yes. Click the LinkGuard icon in the toolbar and switch off “Checks on this site”.