Differences between URL formats for a Confluence Data Center pages
Platform Notice: Data Center Only - This article only applies to Atlassian apps on the Data Center platform.
Note that this KB was created for the Data Center version of the product. Data Center KBs for non-Data-Center-specific features may also work for Server versions of the product, however they have not been tested. Support for Server* products ended on February 15th 2024. If you are running a Server product, you can visit the Atlassian Server end of support announcement to review your migration options.
*Except Fisheye and Crucible
Summary
There are several different ways to link to a given Confluence page, and this KB aims to explain when and how each format is generated.
Three of the most common formats are:
Page title ("pretty") format
PageId format
Shortened ("tiny link") format
The Confluence page URL is generated automatically each time a Confluence page is created. By design, it is not possible to disable certain formats as outlined in the improvement request CONFSERVER-28491 - Function Request: disabling automatic conversion from page's URL to page title in Confluence
Which URL should I share?
Use case | Recommended URL format | Why |
|---|---|---|
Long-lived bookmark or external link | pageId format ( | Survives page title renames; survives page-move-between-spaces |
Quick link to share in chat | tinylink format ( | Shortest; URL-safe; survives renames |
Human-readable email link | Pretty URL ( | Readable in plain text; breaks if page is renamed |
API call / scripted integration | pageId via REST | Stable across renames AND space moves |
Solution
Page Title ("Pretty") Format
Example:
https://confluence.example.com/display/SPACEKEY/Page+TitleWhenever possible, Confluence will default to using this format to link to pages. This format contains the space key where the page resides, as well as the title of the page itself with some minor substitutions and URL encoding (e.g. spaces are replaced with "+" signs). This type of link allows users to identify what the linked content is about without needing to click on it. If the page title changes, the URL will likewise be updated to reflect the new title. If a user then tries to access a page with the old title in the URL, they will encounter a "Page not found" with a suggestion that the page may have been renamed, including a link to the new page.
As this URL format is based on the page title, there are conditions that can prevent the pretty format from being generated. These conditions include either:
If the page title contains a URL reserved or unsafe character, such as (but not limited to):
% & ? / \ ; " § + :If the page title contains non-Latin characters such as (but not limited to):
German Umlauts
CJK Characters
If the final character of the page title is any non-alphanumeric character.
If either of these is true, Confluence will default to using the pageId URL format instead of trying to generate a pretty URL with the page title.
When pretty URLs break : Pretty URLs are not generated for pages where the title contains:
Characters in this set:
% & ? / \ ; " § + :Non-Latin characters (German Umlauts, CJK, Cyrillic, Arabic, etc.)
A trailing non-alphanumeric character
In any of these cases, Confluence will fall back to the pageId format.
Known bug: CONFSERVER-90845 — Pretty URLs broken for Blog pages (Closed). Check the fix version for your Confluence version.
PageId Format
Example:
https://confluence.example.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=123456Unlike the pretty format, the PageId format can be used to refer to any page in Confluence, since each page has a unique pageId value (stored in the database). As long as the pageId is known, a user can substitute the value at the end of the URL and access the page directly. The URL for a given page is static and will retain the same pageId reference even if the page is renamed or moved to a different location.
To get PageID follow the steps described in the article: How to get Confluence page ID
Shortened ("Tiny Link") Format
Example:
https://confluence.example.com/x/a4OcETypically not seen in the UI, users can request a shortened URL to be generated for any given page by accessing the page and clicking "..." > Page Information. The resulting page will have the tiny link generated. This format is useful if character count is a restriction when sharing the link. It is generated based on the PageId after converting to a byte array and encoded to base64. You can find the technical details here: How to programmatically generate the Tiny link of a Confluence page
Related Feature Requests
There are a couple of feature requests you may wish to follow, relating to page URL formatting:
Always generate links with "Pretty URL" format, even with special characters in the title: CONFSERVER-11285 - Page names with special characters to generate regular URL
Always generate links with "PageId" format (some organizations prefer this for privacy or consistency reasons): CONFSERVER-45898 - URLs should be based on pageID instead of pageTitle
Anchor Links
The Confluence Anchor Links will still be working in any of the formats above, such as:
Anchor in Pretty Format
https://confluence.example.com/display/PROJ/page+one#pageone-afterline3Anchor in PageId Format
https://confluence.example.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=98404#pageone-afterline3Anchor in Tiny Link Format
https://confluence.example.com/x/ZIAB#pageone-afterline3Support for languages and special characters in page URLs
Confluence 9.1 now supports a new format for page and blog post URLs. Key improvements include:
Updated URL format with space key, page ID, and page title for better readability.
Extended support for non-Latin and special characters in page titles within URLs.
Automatic redirection for URLs of renamed pages.
Seamless redirection from old-format URLs, such as bookmarks, to the new URLs without breaking links.
The new URL format follows this structure:
https://confluence.example.com/spaces/SPACEKEY/pages/pageID/Page+Title
How to find the pageId of any page
Open the page in your browser.
Click the ⋯ menu in the top-right and select Page Information.
The pageId is shown in the URL of the Page Information screen and in the page metadata.
Alternatively, append
/pages/viewinfo.action?pageId=PAGEIDto your Confluence base URL, or use the REST API endpoint/rest/api/content?title=<title>&spaceKey=<key>which returns the pageId in the response.
Related articles
Was this helpful?