Show Full Website Addresses in Safari on Mac

Out of the box, Safari's address bar shows a shortened site name — "github.com" — rather than the complete web address. To make it show the full URL for every page, turn on one option in Safari's Advanced settings. It's a three-click change, it takes effect immediately, and it's just as easy to switch back.

Turn on full website addresses

1. Open Safari.
2. From the menu bar, choose Safari → Settings (or press Cmd+,).
3. Click the Advanced tab.
4. Tick Show full website address.

That's it — the address bar now displays the complete URL, including the path and any query string, on every page you visit. There's nothing to relaunch. To go back to the short site name, return to the same tab and untick the box. This option is in the identical location on macOS 13 Ventura, 14 Sonoma, and 15 Sequoia.

A few things worth knowing

• It's per-Mac. The setting applies to Safari on this computer. If you use Safari on another Mac, iPhone, or iPad, turn it on there separately — it isn't synced by iCloud.
• Search still works normally. The address bar is also Safari's search box; showing the full URL doesn't change that. Type a web address and it navigates, type words and it searches.
• Clicking the bar always showed the real URL. Even with the short view, clicking into the field revealed the full address for editing. This setting just keeps it visible at all times.

Prefer the command line?

Safari stores this as the preference ShowFullURLInSmartSearchField. On modern macOS, though, Safari's settings are protected, so a defaults write only takes effect if Terminal has Full Disk Access (System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access) and Safari is fully quit first — otherwise the value can be ignored or overwritten. That's why the Advanced checkbox above is the recommended route. For completeness, with Safari closed and that access granted:

# Quit Safari first; Terminal needs Full Disk Access
defaults write com.apple.Safari ShowFullURLInSmartSearchField -bool true

# Undo
defaults write com.apple.Safari ShowFullURLInSmartSearchField -bool false

For a single change on one Mac, ticking the box is faster and doesn't require handing Terminal broad disk access.

More Safari settings to revisit

While you're in Safari's settings, it's a good moment to tidy the rest. See how to show the status bar in Safari on Mac to preview link destinations at the bottom of the window.