Quick answer

A URL path is the portion after the host and before a query or fragment. It often uses slash-separated segments, such as /learn/images/.

Original example

Two sections of one sample site

In https://example.com/learn/ the path is /learn/. In https://example.com/tools/url-explorer/ the path is /tools/url-explorer/. Both addresses use the same hostname but identify different locations.

Path segments

Hierarchical URL paths commonly contain segments separated by forward slashes. A question mark starts the query and a number sign starts the fragment, so neither belongs to the path.

The native URL parser may normalize dot segments such as /a/../b to /b.

Common misunderstandings

  • A path is not a local file-system guarantee; a server decides how to interpret it.
  • The query and fragment are separate URL components.

Related answers

Sources

  • URI path - MDN Web Docs, accessed 2026-10-30

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