How to Extract URLs from Text Online — No Regex, No Terminal

URLs hide everywhere in technical text: embedded in API logs alongside timestamps and status codes, scattered throughout config files between keys and comments, buried in copied HTML mixed with body text. Reading through manually to find them is slow. Running a regex requires remembering the pattern. Uploading to an online tool means putting potentially sensitive URLs — internal API endpoints, private dashboards, dev environments — on someone else's server.

TextForge is a Chrome extension with an Extract URLs function that runs entirely in your browser. Paste the text, apply the function, copy the list. Nothing leaves your machine.

When You Need to Extract URLs

API logs and request traces API responses, request logs, and test outputs often contain URLs embedded alongside status codes, timestamps, and payloads. When you need to isolate the endpoint URLs for debugging or testing, extraction is faster than manual hunting.

Configuration files and exports Kubernetes manifests, Docker Compose files, env exports, and .env files sometimes contain URLs mixed with keys, paths, and comments. Extract the URLs to audit endpoints your service talks to without touching the rest of the config.

Scraped or copied HTML When you copy HTML from a web page into a text editor, you get a wall of links buried in markup and body text. Extract the href URLs to build a list of all destinations on a page, useful for link auditing or broken-link detection.

Documentation and runbooks Internal documentation, runbooks, and incident reports accumulate links in body text, tables, and footnotes. Extract the full set to see every resource referenced in the doc without scanning line by line.

Why Manual Alternatives Fall Short

Method	The friction
Scan by eye	Slow for anything over a page; easy to miss one or mistype a URL.
Regex in VS Code	Requires knowing the URL pattern and switching into find-and-replace mode.
Python re.findall	Requires a terminal, Python installed, and writing a pattern for http/https/ftp variations.
Online URL extractor	Your internal APIs, dev URLs, and config endpoints are sent to a third-party server.

A browser extension removes all of that friction: one click from the toolbar, no terminal, all processing happens locally on your machine.

How to Extract URLs with TextForge

1

Install TextForge

Install TextForge from the Chrome Web Store. After installing, open the Extensions menu and pin the TextForge icon to your toolbar so it's always accessible.
2

Open the extension

Click the TextForge icon in your browser toolbar. The extension panel opens immediately — no new tab, no redirect.
3

Paste your text

Paste the raw text block into the input area. It can be API logs, a config file, copied HTML, documentation, or any text containing URLs you need to extract.
4

Apply Extract URLs

Select Extract URLs from the tools menu. TextForge scans the entire input and returns every URL it finds, one per line.
5

Copy the result

The extracted list appears instantly. Click to copy it to your clipboard. No waiting, no server round trip.

Practical Example

Say you're debugging and receive this block of API log text:

Input — mixed log and documentation

Error at 12:34:05: request to https://api.internal.example.com/v1/users failed.
See runbook at https://wiki.company.net/incidents/api-failures
Fallback endpoint: https://api-backup.example.com/v1/users (untested)
Contact: admin@example.com

After applying Extract URLs in TextForge, the output is:

Output — extracted URLs

https://api.internal.example.com/v1/users
https://wiki.company.net/incidents/api-failures
https://api-backup.example.com/v1/users

Three URLs pulled from mixed text containing an email, timestamps, and natural language — all URL formats extracted, no regex needed, and sensitive internal endpoints stay on your machine.

Other Extraction Functions in TextForge

TextForge can also extract email addresses and IP addresses from a text block — useful when logs mix multiple data types and you need to isolate one at a time. All three extraction functions are included in the free version.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does TextForge extract URLs from inside HTML tags?

Yes. URLs inside href=, src=, and other HTML attributes are matched, as are plain URLs in text.

Can TextForge handle URLs with query parameters?

Yes. The entire URL including path, query string, and fragment (#) is extracted as one unit.

Is Extract URLs free in TextForge?

Yes. All extraction functions — emails, URLs, IP addresses — are included in the free version. No account or subscription is required.

What happens to my URLs when I use TextForge?

Nothing leaves your browser. TextForge is a Chrome extension that processes text locally on your machine. No data is sent to Wendygo Studio servers or any third-party service.

Can I extract URLs from a live web page I'm viewing?

TextForge works on text you paste into its input area. To extract links from a page, select all the text on the page (Ctrl+A), copy it, and paste it into TextForge. The extension then extracts every URL in that text.

TextForge is free to install. Extract URLs, Extract Emails, and Extract IPs are all included in the free version — no account or subscription required.

Install TextForge — free