What Does "zx=" and "no sw cr=1" on Google Mean and How it Affects Search

• When going to Google.com or searching using Google, the URL is redirected to one that includes `?zx=[number]&no_sw_cr=1`.
  
  
• This does not appear to be tracking or malware, the number changes every time.
  
  
• The number appears to be correlated to time (chart below).
  
  

The `zx=` value

The part after `zx=[number]` is a long number, usually 13 to 15 digits. It changes every time you load the page. At first it looks like random noise. But tests show the number always goes up. That makes it work like a counter or a timestamp. It is not tied to your Google account, but it gives each request a unique mark.

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The `no_sw_cr=1` value

The second part, `no_sw_cr=1`, has been known since 2019. A German SEO site found it when testing mobile search. The value tells Google to ignore cached results and show a fresh page. For search testers this is useful. For normal users, it only looks strange and adds confusion.

Time Analysis of the zx Number

At first the `zx` number looks random. But when you collect samples, you see a pattern. The number never goes down. It always climbs higher, even across different days and months.

The prefix — the first four digits — changes slowly over time. For example, in October 2024 it was around 1727. By March 2025 it had risen to 1742. By late August 2025 it was around 1756. That is an increase of about 2 to 3 units per month.

The rest of the digits climb much faster. In tests, values taken 10 seconds apart rise by 15,000 to 30,000. That is roughly 1,500 to 3,000 per second. The rate is not constant, but the growth is steady.

This means the `zx` number is like a timestamp, but not a standard one like Unix time. Instead it seems to be a hybrid. The first digits track days or months. The last digits act like a fast counter, climbing thousands per second.

This makes sense if it is a live counter on the Google side. Each request would get a number from that clock. It prevents caching, and it gives every request a unique tag.

To the user, this looks like tracking. Even if it is “just” an internal counter, it still means that every search request can be logged with millisecond detail.

What You Can Do About It

While the zx= and no_sw_cr=1 tags appear to be harmless, you may want to disable them. The tags can interfere when you try to modify the URL since it makes the URL much longer. The directions below will guide you on disabling these tags.

Google Chrome

This extension also fixes for search and home page.

1. Click the 3 dots in the top right > Settings
2. Click Search Engines
3. Click Manage search engines and site search
4. Click Add next to Site search
5. Enter any name and any shortcut, then enter this for the URL: https://www.google.com/search?q=%s
6. Add &udm=14 to remove AI overview results from the search results.
7. Find the entry under Site search, click the 3 dots for that entry > Make Default
   
   

• Note: Setting the search engine to the no vx also sets the search in the new tab (home page).
  

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Microsoft Edge

No fix exists for the homepage. How to fix Search:

1. Click the 3 dots in the top right > Settings
2. Click Search Engines
3. Click "Privacy, search and services" in the left hand sidebar
4. Click Search and connected experiences
5. Click Address bar and search
6. Click Search engines
7. Click Add search engine
8. Enter any name (Search engine) and any shortcut, then enter this for the URL: https://www.google.com/search?q=%s
9. Add &udm=14 to remove AI overview results from the search results.
10. Find the entry and click the 3 dots for that entry > Make Default
    
    

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Mozilla Firefox

This extension seems to work on homepage and search. How to fix Search:

1. Click the 3 horizontal lines in the top right > Settings
2. Click Search
3. At the bottom of the page go to Search Shortcuts and click Add
4. Enter any name (Search engine) and then enter this for the URL: https://www.google.com/search?q=%s
5. Add &udm=14 to remove AI overview results from the search results.
6. Scroll up and under Default Search Engine, select the entry you just made
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

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Brave

The same extension can be used as Chrome. How to fix Search:

1. Click the 3 horizontal lines in the top right > Settings
2. Click the 3 horizontal lines in the top left of the Settings window
3. Click Search engine
4. Click Manage search engines and site search
5. Click Add next to Site search
6. Enter any name and any shortcut, then enter this for the URL: https://www.google.com/search?q=%s
7. Add &udm=14 to remove AI overview results from the search results.
8. Find the entry under Site search, click the 3 dots for that entry > Make Default