diff --git a/src/libfetchers/tarball.cc b/src/libfetchers/tarball.cc
index 31d5ab460..863a0d680 100644
--- a/src/libfetchers/tarball.cc
+++ b/src/libfetchers/tarball.cc
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ DownloadFileResult downloadFile(
     if (cached && !cached->expired)
         return useCached();
 
-    FileTransferRequest request(ValidURL{url});
+    FileTransferRequest request(VerbatimURL{url});
     request.headers = headers;
     if (cached)
         request.expectedETag = getStrAttr(cached->value, "etag");
@@ -107,13 +107,13 @@ DownloadFileResult downloadFile(
 static DownloadTarballResult downloadTarball_(
     const Settings & settings, const std::string & urlS, const Headers & headers, const std::string & displayPrefix)
 {
-    ValidURL url = urlS;
+    ParsedURL url = parseURL(urlS);
 
     // Some friendly error messages for common mistakes.
     // Namely lets catch when the url is a local file path, but
     // it is not in fact a tarball.
-    if (url.scheme() == "file") {
-        std::filesystem::path localPath = renderUrlPathEnsureLegal(url.path());
+    if (url.scheme == "file") {
+        std::filesystem::path localPath = renderUrlPathEnsureLegal(url.path);
         if (!exists(localPath)) {
             throw Error("tarball '%s' does not exist.", localPath);
         }
@@ -164,7 +164,7 @@ static DownloadTarballResult downloadTarball_(
 
     /* Note: if the download is cached, `importTarball()` will receive
        no data, which causes it to import an empty tarball. */
-    auto archive = !url.path().empty() && hasSuffix(toLower(url.path().back()), ".zip") ? ({
+    auto archive = !url.path.empty() && hasSuffix(toLower(url.path.back()), ".zip") ? ({
         /* In streaming mode, libarchive doesn't handle
            symlinks in zip files correctly (#10649). So write
            the entire file to disk so libarchive can access it
@@ -178,7 +178,7 @@ static DownloadTarballResult downloadTarball_(
         }
         TarArchive{path};
     })
-                                                                                        : TarArchive{*source};
+                                                                                    : TarArchive{*source};
     auto tarballCache = getTarballCache();
     auto parseSink = tarballCache->getFileSystemObjectSink();
     auto lastModified = unpackTarfileToSink(archive, *parseSink);
diff --git a/src/libstore/builtins/fetchurl.cc b/src/libstore/builtins/fetchurl.cc
index 7abfa4495..df056954e 100644
--- a/src/libstore/builtins/fetchurl.cc
+++ b/src/libstore/builtins/fetchurl.cc
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ static void builtinFetchurl(const BuiltinBuilderContext & ctx)
 
     auto fetch = [&](const std::string & url) {
         auto source = sinkToSource([&](Sink & sink) {
-            FileTransferRequest request(ValidURL{url});
+            FileTransferRequest request(VerbatimURL{url});
             request.decompress = false;
 
             auto decompressor = makeDecompressionSink(unpack && hasSuffix(mainUrl, ".xz") ? "xz" : "none", sink);
diff --git a/src/libstore/include/nix/store/filetransfer.hh b/src/libstore/include/nix/store/filetransfer.hh
index 2f2d59036..edd5f4dd4 100644
--- a/src/libstore/include/nix/store/filetransfer.hh
+++ b/src/libstore/include/nix/store/filetransfer.hh
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ extern const unsigned int RETRY_TIME_MS_DEFAULT;
 
 struct FileTransferRequest
 {
-    ValidURL uri;
+    VerbatimURL uri;
     Headers headers;
     std::string expectedETag;
     bool verifyTLS = true;
@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@ struct FileTransferRequest
     std::string mimeType;
     std::function<void(std::string_view data)> dataCallback;
 
-    FileTransferRequest(ValidURL uri)
+    FileTransferRequest(VerbatimURL uri)
         : uri(std::move(uri))
         , parentAct(getCurActivity())
     {
diff --git a/src/libutil/include/nix/util/url.hh b/src/libutil/include/nix/util/url.hh
index f2bd79b08..4ed80feb3 100644
--- a/src/libutil/include/nix/util/url.hh
+++ b/src/libutil/include/nix/util/url.hh
@@ -6,6 +6,9 @@
 
 #include "nix/util/error.hh"
 #include "nix/util/canon-path.hh"
+#include "nix/util/split.hh"
+#include "nix/util/util.hh"
+#include "nix/util/variant-wrapper.hh"
 
 namespace nix {
 
@@ -342,8 +345,7 @@ ParsedURL fixGitURL(const std::string & url);
 bool isValidSchemeName(std::string_view scheme);
 
 /**
- * Either a ParsedURL or a verbatim string, but the string must be a valid
- * ParsedURL. This is necessary because in certain cases URI must be passed
+ * Either a ParsedURL or a verbatim string. This is necessary because in certain cases URI must be passed
  * verbatim (e.g. in builtin fetchers), since those are specified by the user.
  * In those cases normalizations performed by the ParsedURL might be surprising
  * and undesirable, since Nix must be a universal client that has to work with
@@ -354,23 +356,23 @@ bool isValidSchemeName(std::string_view scheme);
  *
  * Though we perform parsing and validation for internal needs.
  */
-struct ValidURL : private ParsedURL
+struct VerbatimURL
 {
-    std::optional<std::string> encoded;
+    using Raw = std::variant<std::string, ParsedURL>;
+    Raw raw;
 
-    ValidURL(std::string str)
-        : ParsedURL(parseURL(str, /*lenient=*/false))
-        , encoded(std::move(str))
+    VerbatimURL(std::string_view s)
+        : raw(std::string{s})
     {
     }
 
-    ValidURL(std::string_view str)
-        : ValidURL(std::string{str})
+    VerbatimURL(std::string s)
+        : raw(std::move(s))
     {
     }
 
-    ValidURL(ParsedURL parsed)
-        : ParsedURL{std::move(parsed)}
+    VerbatimURL(ParsedURL url)
+        : raw(std::move(url))
     {
     }
 
@@ -379,25 +381,35 @@ struct ValidURL : private ParsedURL
      */
     std::string to_string() const
     {
-        return encoded.or_else([&]() -> std::optional<std::string> { return ParsedURL::to_string(); }).value();
+        return std::visit(
+            overloaded{
+                [](const std::string & str) { return str; }, [](const ParsedURL & url) { return url.to_string(); }},
+            raw);
     }
 
-    const ParsedURL & parsed() const &
+    const ParsedURL parsed() const
     {
-        return *this;
+        return std::visit(
+            overloaded{
+                [](const std::string & str) { return parseURL(str); }, [](const ParsedURL & url) { return url; }},
+            raw);
     }
 
     std::string_view scheme() const &
     {
-        return ParsedURL::scheme;
-    }
-
-    const auto & path() const &
-    {
-        return ParsedURL::path;
+        return std::visit(
+            overloaded{
+                [](std::string_view str) {
+                    auto scheme = splitPrefixTo(str, ':');
+                    if (!scheme)
+                        throw BadURL("URL '%s' doesn't have a scheme", str);
+                    return *scheme;
+                },
+                [](const ParsedURL & url) -> std::string_view { return url.scheme; }},
+            raw);
     }
 };
 
-std::ostream & operator<<(std::ostream & os, const ValidURL & url);
+std::ostream & operator<<(std::ostream & os, const VerbatimURL & url);
 
 } // namespace nix
diff --git a/src/libutil/url.cc b/src/libutil/url.cc
index a50de0944..7410e4062 100644
--- a/src/libutil/url.cc
+++ b/src/libutil/url.cc
@@ -434,7 +434,7 @@ bool isValidSchemeName(std::string_view s)
     return std::regex_match(s.begin(), s.end(), regex, std::regex_constants::match_default);
 }
 
-std::ostream & operator<<(std::ostream & os, const ValidURL & url)
+std::ostream & operator<<(std::ostream & os, const VerbatimURL & url)
 {
     os << url.to_string();
     return os;
diff --git a/src/nix/prefetch.cc b/src/nix/prefetch.cc
index 26905e34c..18abfa0aa 100644
--- a/src/nix/prefetch.cc
+++ b/src/nix/prefetch.cc
@@ -105,7 +105,7 @@ std::tuple<StorePath, Hash> prefetchFile(
 
             FdSink sink(fd.get());
 
-            FileTransferRequest req(ValidURL{url});
+            FileTransferRequest req(VerbatimURL{url});
             req.decompress = false;
             getFileTransfer()->download(std::move(req), sink);
         }
diff --git a/tests/functional/fetchurl.sh b/tests/functional/fetchurl.sh
index 5bc8ca625..c25ac3216 100755
--- a/tests/functional/fetchurl.sh
+++ b/tests/functional/fetchurl.sh
@@ -88,8 +88,3 @@ requireDaemonNewerThan "2.20"
 expected=100
 if [[ -v NIX_DAEMON_PACKAGE ]]; then expected=1; fi # work around the daemon not returning a 100 status correctly
 expectStderr $expected nix-build --expr '{ url }: builtins.derivation { name = "nix-cache-info"; system = "x86_64-linux"; builder = "builtin:fetchurl"; inherit url; outputHashMode = "flat"; }' --argstr url "file://$narxz" 2>&1 | grep 'must be a fixed-output or impure derivation'
-
-requireDaemonNewerThan "2.32.0pre20250831"
-
-expect 1 nix-build --expr 'import <nix/fetchurl.nix>' --argstr name 'name' --argstr url "file://authority.not.allowed/fetchurl.sh?a=1&a=2" --no-out-link |&
-        grepQuiet "error: file:// URL 'file://authority.not.allowed/fetchurl.sh?a=1&a=2' has unexpected authority 'authority.not.allowed'"