What browser am I using?
Above is the browser identity your browser chose to hand out. It is not a hardware fact, it is a self-report, and several browsers deliberately self-report as something else for compatibility. If you need the number that cannot be faked, open the About screen inside the browser itself.
What this number actually means
The name and version above are what your browser tells websites it is, taken from User-Agent Client Hints where they exist and from the user agent string otherwise. That is a claim, not a measurement: a browser can send any identity it likes, and most of them send more than one on purpose. If you need the authoritative answer for a support ticket, the About page inside your browser reads the actual build and cannot be spoofed by a website.
The name and version of the browser you are reading this in are shown above. We work it out from the user agent string and, where your browser supports it, the newer User-Agent Client Hints, which report the brand and version more reliably than the old string.
Knowing your exact browser matters more than it sounds. Support articles, video calls, banking sites and web apps all behave differently across Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge, and across versions. When something breaks, the first useful fact is which browser and which version you are on.
Note that some browsers deliberately impersonate others. Many Chromium-based browsers report themselves as Chrome, and privacy browsers may report a rounded-down version, so the detected name is a best effort from the signals your browser chooses to share.
How a website reads this
This is the exact call a page makes. Nothing else is involved, and nothing is sent anywhere: the value is read in your browser and displayed to you.
navigator.userAgentData?.brands ?? navigator.userAgentClient Hints give a list of brand and major-version pairs, which is why a Chromium browser can name both itself and Chromium. Where they are unavailable, the name is parsed out of the user agent string, which is guesswork.
- Needs your permission
- No, it is read silently
- Can it be faked
- Yes. Both the brand list and the user agent can be rewritten by an extension. The About page inside the browser cannot, which is why it is the answer to give a support desk.
- Contribution to a fingerprint
- About 2 bits, our own estimate. Our estimate. The brand alone is shared by hundreds of millions of people; the major version narrows it a little, because most users of a browser update within a couple of weeks of each other. How we estimate this.
Where do I find my browser version in the menus?
Every browser hides its About page somewhere slightly different. These are the current routes.
| Browser | Where to look | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Chrome | Three dot menu, then Help, then About Google Chrome | Full version and whether an update is pending. Opening the page also triggers an update check. |
| Edge | Three dot menu, then Help and feedback, then About Microsoft Edge | Version plus the Chromium build it is based on. |
| Firefox | Hamburger menu, then Help, then About Firefox | Version and release channel, such as release, beta or ESR. |
| Safari on macOS | Safari menu, then About Safari | Safari version and the WebKit build behind it. |
| Safari on iPhone or iPad | Settings, then General, then About | Safari ships with iOS, so the iOS version is the answer. |
| Opera, Brave, Vivaldi and other Chromium browsers | Menu, then About | Their own version number plus the Chromium version they are built on. |
The version this page detects can lag the About page slightly, because some browsers deliberately report a reduced or rounded version to websites while telling you the exact build.
Why does this say Chrome when I am using Brave, Edge or Opera?
Because those browsers are built on Chromium and choose to look like Chrome to websites. It is a compatibility decision with a long history: sites used to check for browser names and serve a degraded page to anything they did not recognise, so every new browser learned to identify as the popular one.
That is also why a Chrome user agent string mentions Mozilla, AppleWebKit, KHTML, Gecko and Safari all at once. Each of those tokens was added at some point to get past a site that was sniffing for a competitor.
User-Agent Client Hints improve this. Instead of one crowded string, the browser sends a list of brands, and a Chromium browser can name both itself and Chromium separately. This page prefers that list when it is available, which is why it can identify Edge or Brave correctly on browsers that support it.
Why is my browser version not the full number?
Chrome's User-Agent Reduction programme deliberately freezes and trims what the user agent string reveals. The minor version digits are reported as zeros and the platform detail is flattened, so the string exposes far less than it once did.
The reasoning is fingerprinting. A precise build number, down to the last digit, is shared by a much smaller group of people than a major version, and it changes on a schedule that makes it useful for re-identifying a returning visitor. Reducing it to the major version puts everyone on the same release in one large bucket.
A site that genuinely needs the full version can ask for it through high entropy Client Hints, which the browser may grant. That is a request the browser can see and refuse, which is the point: it turns a passive leak into an explicit ask.
What can a website learn about me from my browser?
The brand alone is nearly worthless as an identifier, because hundreds of millions of people run the same one. Even the major version is shared with everybody who updated in the same window, which on Chrome is most of its users within a couple of weeks.
The distinctiveness comes from the edges. A very old version, a rare browser, an unusual build channel, or an inconsistent combination such as a Safari user agent on a Windows platform, all narrow the crowd sharply. Ironically, spoofing your browser identity with an extension usually makes you more identifiable rather than less, because the resulting combination is one almost nobody else sends.
The practical advice is dull but correct: stay updated, so your reported identity matches the largest possible group, and if you want real protection use a browser that normalises the whole signal set rather than an extension that rewrites one header.
What you should know
Why sites collect it
Sites use your browser name and version to enable or disable features, show upgrade prompts, route bug reports, and measure which browsers their audience uses so they know what to test against.
Privacy implications
Your browser brand is low-entropy on its own, but the precise version number adds detail, and a very old or very unusual version stands out. Client Hints let sites request only the parts they need, which is better for privacy than broadcasting a full string to everyone.
How to change or hide it
You cannot hide that you are using a browser, but you can reduce how much version detail leaks by keeping your browser updated (so your version matches the crowd), or by using a browser that minimises version reporting. Spoofing the brand is possible with extensions but often breaks feature detection.
Frequently asked questions
How do I check my browser version exactly?
This page shows it above, and most browsers also list it under a menu like Help then About. The About page is the authoritative source since it reads the build directly.
What browser am I using right now?
The name and version at the top of this page, detected from the identity your browser sends to websites. If it looks wrong, open your browser's own About page, which reads the real build.
Why does the site think I am using Chrome when I am not?
Many browsers are built on Chromium and report a Chrome-compatible identity for maximum site compatibility. Client Hints, where available, give the real brand.
Why does my version end in zeros?
Chrome's User-Agent Reduction freezes the minor version digits so every user on the same major release looks alike, which limits how well a precise build number can be used to track you.
Sources
Browser behaviour changes and vendors cap these values differently, so the claims above that are not self-evident are checked against the specifications and vendor documentation below.
Last checked on . How these values are measured and estimated is set out on the methodology page.
Something wrong here? Tell us what your browser reports and it gets corrected.