A gateway to the onion network
The onion web,
without the onion browser.
Paste an .onion address. OpenTor routes it through Tor and opens the page in the browser you already use.
The route
Three hops from address to page.
-
01
Paste
Use a bare .onion address or a full onion URL. OpenTor strips
http://orhttps://for you and checks that the address is a valid v3 onion. -
02
Route
The gateway opens a SOCKS5 connection through Tor and fetches the page. The onion service sees a Tor exit, not the IP address of your browser.
-
03
Browse
HTML, CSS, links, forms, redirects, and cookies are rewritten so navigation stays inside
/tor/<onion>/.
The bridge
A bridge, not a browser.
OpenTor is a public HTTP gateway to Tor onion services. It accepts a v3 .onion address, fetches the page through a local Tor connection, and returns a version your everyday browser can navigate.
- Designed for
- Quick access from any device
- Network
- Tor v3 onion services
- Targets
- Onion only, never clearnet
- Interface
- Ordinary HTTP in your browser
The gateway is deliberately narrow: it refuses clearnet and private-network destinations, so it cannot be used as a general-purpose open proxy.
The fine print
What the gateway can see.
OpenTor is a convenience layer, not an anonymity tool. Read this before using it for anything sensitive.
- The gateway sees your IP, the onion address, and the paths you request. It does not forward your IP address to the onion service.
- The onion service still runs JavaScript in your browser. It can fingerprint your device just like any other website. Use Tor Browser when anonymity matters.
- Clearnet links are not proxied. If a page links to the ordinary web, your browser opens that link directly.
- Only v3 onions are accepted. v2 addresses are retired, and offline services return a gateway error.
- Caching, logins, downloads, and some apps behave differently. Versioned assets and a refresh are your friends when a site changes.
- Proxied onion pages are noindex by default. This landing page is the only page the gateway asks search engines to index.
Questions
Answers before you paste.
Do I need Tor Browser?
No. OpenTor works in any modern browser. Use Tor Browser when you need Tor's full anonymity and anti-fingerprinting protections.
Is OpenTor anonymous?
No. Tor hides your network path from the onion service, but the gateway can see your IP address, the onion you requested, and the paths you visit. Use Tor Browser when anonymity matters.
Why does the address bar say /tor/?
OpenTor prefixes onion URLs so links, forms, cookies, and assets stay inside the gateway. http:// and https:// are removed automatically.
Which addresses can I open?
Only v3 .onion addresses: 56 base32 characters followed by .onion. v2 onion addresses are no longer supported by the Tor network.
Can I log in and use cookies?
Usually yes. Cookies are scoped to /tor/<onion>/ and redirects are rewritten. Some sites rely on browser features that cannot be proxied safely.
Do downloads and large files work?
Yes, including range requests, but very large or slow transfers can hit the gateway timeout.
Do search engines index onion content?
By default, only this landing page is indexable. Proxied onion pages are marked noindex and excluded in robots.txt.
What does not work?
WebSockets, some single-page apps, Service Workers, CAPTCHAs, and sites that require their original origin may fail. Use Tor Browser for full compatibility.
For developers and machines
One predictable route.
The gateway is intentionally small. Use the URL directly, or send a form to /go and let the server normalize the address.
# open a page
GET /tor/<onion>/<path>
# form fallback (accepts http:// and https://)
GET /go?address=<url-encoded-onion>
# machine-readable
GET /llms.txt
GET /sitemap.xml
GET /healthzRequests are rewritten for the browser. Relative links, root-absolute paths, cookies, and redirects stay inside the /tor/<onion>/ prefix.