About

Long URLs break in emails, exceed character limits on social platforms, and look unprofessional in printed materials. A URL exceeding 2083 characters will fail in Internet Explorer and many legacy HTTP clients. This tool converts any valid URI into a compact short link using public shortening services. The original URL is validated against RFC 3986 before submission. All generated links are stored locally in your browser for future reference. Note: short link availability depends on third-party service uptime. Redirects typically add 30 - 80ms of latency per hop.

Pro Tip: avoid shortening already-shortened URLs. Chained redirects degrade page load time and can trigger spam filters in email clients. Most URL shorteners enforce a rate limit of 5 - 10 requests per minute per IP address. This tool respects that constraint client-side. The history panel persists across sessions via localStorage, capped at 100 entries to prevent storage quota issues.

Formulas

URL shortening maps a long URI to a compact key using a bijective base conversion. The service assigns an auto-incrementing integer id to each new URL, then encodes it into a short alphanumeric string.

shortKey = base62(id)

The base-62 alphabet uses characters a - z, A - Z, 0 - 9. The maximum number of unique keys for a string of length n is:

capacity = 62ⁿ

For a 6-character key: 62⁶ = 56,800,235,584 unique URLs. Character savings are computed as:

saved = len(originalURL) − len(shortURL)

The compression ratio:

ratio = len(shortURL)len(originalURL) × 100%

Where originalURL is the input URI string and shortURL is the resulting redirect address. URL validation follows RFC 3986 pattern matching via the browser's native URL() constructor, which rejects malformed schemes and authority components.

Reference Data

Platform / Context	Max URL Length	Short Link Benefit	Redirect Latency
Twitter / X Post	280 chars total	Saves ~200 chars	~50ms
SMS Message	160 chars	Prevents multi-part split	~40ms
QR Code (Version 1)	41 chars numeric	Lower QR version = faster scan	~60ms
Email (Plain Text)	998 chars per line (RFC 5322)	Prevents line wrapping	~50ms
Internet Explorer	2083 chars	Avoids truncation	N/A
Apache HTTP Server	8190 chars default	Prevents 414 errors	N/A
Nginx Default	4096 chars	Prevents 414 errors	N/A
Google Search Console	2048 chars	Cleaner crawl logs	~30ms
Facebook Open Graph	1024 chars	Reliable preview cards	~45ms
Print / Business Cards	~50 chars readable	Human-readable, memorable	~50ms
Slack Message	No hard limit	Cleaner previews	~40ms
WhatsApp	65536 chars	Better tap targets on mobile	~55ms
LinkedIn Post	3000 chars	Professional appearance	~50ms
YouTube Description	5000 chars	Cleaner analytics tracking	~45ms
Reddit Post	40000 chars	Markdown-friendly	~50ms

Frequently Asked Questions

Permanence depends on the shortening service backend. Most public services (TinyURL, CleanURI) maintain links indefinitely with no expiration policy. However, links may be removed if they violate terms of service or receive abuse reports. For mission-critical redirects, consider a self-hosted solution. This tool stores your history locally, so you retain a record even if the service changes.

Short links use 301 or 302 HTTP redirects. A 301 (permanent) redirect passes approximately 90-99% of link equity to the destination URL according to Google's documentation. Most public shorteners use 301 redirects. However, if a shortening domain is flagged as spam, all links under that domain may be devalued. For SEO-critical links, use your own domain with server-side redirects.

This tool implements a fallback chain. If the primary API (CleanURI) fails or times out after 8 seconds, it automatically attempts TinyURL's endpoint. If all APIs fail, you receive a clear error message with the HTTP status code. Your original URL is preserved in the input field. The tool enforces a client-side rate limit of 5 requests per minute to avoid triggering server-side throttling.

Yes. The tool passes the complete URI including query strings (?key=value), fragments (#section), and encoded characters (%20) to the shortening service. The URL() constructor validates the entire string before submission. Be aware that some services strip fragments (the # portion) since fragments are client-side only and not sent to servers during redirects.

The tool accepts URLs up to 8192 characters, which covers the vast majority of use cases. URLs beyond this length typically indicate tracking parameter bloat. Most shortening APIs enforce their own limits around 2000-10000 characters. If your URL exceeds the limit, consider removing unnecessary UTM parameters or encoded payloads before shortening.

Short links are not encrypted. Anyone who guesses or brute-forces the 6-8 character key can access the destination URL. Do not use public URL shorteners for URLs containing authentication tokens, API keys, password reset links, or private documents. The short key space of 62^6 (~56.8 billion combinations) is large but not cryptographically secure. For sensitive links, use access-controlled sharing instead.