Shorten a link
Turn a long address full of parameters into a short link that fits a flyer, a QR code or a referral email, and give each campaign channel its own link so you can compare them. You pay per use, with no subscription.
Run it online
Run this on our servers with your account. Free tools run in your browser; this one bills your KIT balance per the price above.
A long, parameter-heavy URL is a small thing until you have to paste it into a signup email, a printed flyer or a marketing tool — and suddenly it wraps, breaks or looks untrustworthy.
Why long links cause trouble
A long, parameter-heavy address is a small thing until you paste it into a signup email, print it on a flyer or feed it to a marketing tool, and suddenly it wraps, breaks or looks untrustworthy. Print and offline media are the hardest case: a QR code or a spoken address is only usable if it is short enough to read aloud or type by hand. Internal teams run into the same problem with links to dashboards and reports that would otherwise be a wall of parameters.
One destination in, one short link out
You give the destination address, and that is the only thing you need to provide: the short identifier is derived from it automatically, and the link then resolves through a redirect service with nothing for you to run. The finished short link comes back through a signed link that stays valid for 24 hours. Later you can change where a link points, or retire it with a reason that anyone who opens it will see instead of a bare not-found page. A distinct short link per ad channel or newsletter lets you measure each one separately.
What happens when you shorten a link
You submit the destination URL — that's the only input. The short id is derived automatically from the URL, and once live the short link resolves through our redirect infrastructure with no separate service to run.
Who reaches for a shortener and why
Marketing teams tracking which channel drove a click. SaaS products generating shareable links for invites or referral programs where a long, parameter-heavy URL would look untrustworthy. Print and offline media — a QR code or a spoken URL is only usable if it's short enough to read aloud or type by hand.
Internal tools that need stable, memorable links to dashboards or reports that would otherwise be a wall of query-string characters.
What you can do with it
Short referral links
Generate a short link for every user's referral code instead of exposing a long tracking URL with query parameters.
Print and packaging
Put a short, readable URL on packaging or signage where a full link would be too long to fit or too awkward to type by hand.
Campaign tracking by channel
Create a distinct short link per ad channel or newsletter so each one's performance can be measured independently downstream.
FAQ
Can I use my own domain for the short links?
Not yet — today every link is served from our shared redirect service, not a domain you control.
Is the URL shortener free to use?
There's no free tier — free tiers get abused and slow everyone down. No subscription, no tokens, no invented credits, and a failed task is never charged.
Can I choose a custom slug instead of a random one?
No — the short id is derived automatically from the URL you submit, so the same URL always yields the same id. There's no field to pick a custom slug.
Do failed requests get billed?
No. Every task gets up to three retries, and you're only charged on success.
What happens to the destination URL data after I'm done?
It's kept only for the active retention period and deleted afterward; it is never used to train models.
Related tools
For developers — API access
Everything on this page is available programmatically. This section is for teams who want to wire it into their own systems; everyone else can just use the tool above.
API endpoint
Prefer to automate it? One authenticated POST creates the task; the result comes back by webhook or a signed link. The same capability also runs here on the web, by email and from Telegram — and soon from our app too.
Call it from your stack
curl -X POST https://api.kit.forhosting.com/dev/short-url \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $KIT_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"op":"create","url":"https://example.com/una/ruta/larga"}'const res = await fetch("https://api.kit.forhosting.com/dev/short-url", {
method: "POST",
headers: {
"Authorization": `Bearer ${process.env.KIT_KEY}`,
"Content-Type": "application/json"
},
body: JSON.stringify({
"op": "create",
"url": "https://example.com/una/ruta/larga"
})
});
const { task_id } = await res.json();import os, requests
res = requests.post(
"https://api.kit.forhosting.com/dev/short-url",
headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['KIT_KEY']}"},
json={
"op": "create",
"url": "https://example.com/una/ruta/larga"
},
)
task_id = res.json()["task_id"]<?php
$res = file_get_contents("https://api.kit.forhosting.com/dev/short-url", false, stream_context_create([
"http" => [
"method" => "POST",
"header" => "Authorization: Bearer " . getenv("KIT_KEY") . "\r\nContent-Type: application/json",
"content" => '{"op":"create","url":"https://example.com/una/ruta/larga"}',
],
]));
$task = json_decode($res, true);body := bytes.NewBufferString(`{"op":"create","url":"https://example.com/una/ruta/larga"}`)
req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", "https://api.kit.forhosting.com/dev/short-url", body)
req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+os.Getenv("KIT_KEY"))
req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
res, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)Example request
{
"op": "create",
"url": "https://example.com/una/ruta/larga"
}Example response
{
"task_id": "tsk_a1b2c3d4e5f6a1b2c3d4e5f6",
"type": "dev.short_url",
"status": "queued",
"_links": {
"result": "/tasks/tsk_…/result"
}
}The API is asynchronous: the call returns a task_id immediately and the result arrives by webhook. Polling is capped at 1 req/s per task.
Pricing
Published price — no tokens, no invented credits. A failed task is never charged.
Errors
| HTTP | Code | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
401 | unauthorized | Missing or invalid API key. |
402 | insufficient_balance | Your balance doesn't cover the task price. |
404 | unknown_type | That task type doesn't exist. |
429 | rate_limited | Too many requests. Use the webhook instead of polling. |
Technical notes
This API turns any long URL into a short one served through our redirect service, returned asynchronously so it fits into signup flows, content pipelines and marketing tools without slowing them down.
Why a short link still earns the click
A shortened link built on a generic, throwaway domain is instantly recognizable as third-party, and recipients treat it accordingly — some email filters flag them, some users hesitate to click. Serving every redirect through one stable, consistent service address changes that calculus: the link is short, predictable and always resolves the same way. dev.short_url issues links from our shared redirect service today; serving them from a branded domain you control is on our roadmap, not something the API does yet.
What actually happens on each call
The task is queued instantly with a task_id, and the finished short URL comes back through your signed webhook or a signed link valid for 24 hours — the same delivery model as the rest of our developer utilities, so you're not learning a new pattern per endpoint.
A quick word on why link shortening exists at all
URL shorteners became common as social platforms imposed character limits and marketers needed a way to track clicks without cluttering a post — the earliest widely used services traded brevity for a third-party domain, a compromise that made sense before branded shortening was affordable at scale. Bringing that branded, custom-domain option to this API is on our roadmap; for now, every link is served from our shared redirect service.
Where it slots into a pipeline
Because generation is async, you can request thousands of short links from a bulk campaign export or a content migration script without holding a connection open, then process the webhooks as they land. Combine it with the click analytics endpoint if you also want to know what happens after someone clicks — the two are designed to be used together, not as separate products.
Integration use cases
Migrating a legacy link structure
Bulk-generate short URLs for thousands of old article slugs during a site migration, processing results as webhooks arrive.
Technical questions
How fast do I get the short link back?
The request is accepted immediately with a task_id, and the result arrives via signed webhook or a signed link within the normal processing window — no polling required if you use the webhook.
How much does it cost per link?
0.002 dollars per request, with no hidden per-click fee for the shortening step itself.
Can I generate short links in bulk?
Yes — because each call is async and non-blocking, you can fire off large batches and let the webhooks arrive as each one completes.