files/en-us/web/api/document/referrer/index.md
{{APIRef("DOM")}}
The Document.referrer property returns the URI of the page that linked to
this page.
The value is an empty string if the user navigated to the page directly (not through a link, but, for example, by using a bookmark). Because this property returns only a string, it doesn't give you document object model (DOM) access to the referring page.
Inside an {{HTMLElement("iframe")}}, the Document.referrer will initially
be set to the {{domxref("HTMLAnchorElement/href", "href")}} of the parent's
{{domxref("Window/location", "Window.location")}} in same-origin requests.
In cross-origin requests, it's the {{domxref("HTMLAnchorElement/origin", "origin")}} of the parent's Window.location by default.
For more information, see the Referrer-Policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin documentation.
The following will log a string containing the document's referrer.
console.log(document.referrer);
If the user navigated to the page via a link like <a href="https://www.w3.org/">W3</a>, then it will output the previous domain like developer.mozilla.org. If the user navigated to the page directly, it will output an empty string.
{{Specifications}}
{{Compat}}