URL Shortener API
Create branded short links, track every click, and manage millions of URLs through one REST API. Free to start, built to scale.
1,000 free API calls/month · No credit card · OpenAPI 3.0 spec · GDPR-compliant
# Shorten a URL in one call
curl -X POST "https://app.linklyhq.com/api/v1/link?api_key=YOUR_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"workspace_id": 1,
"url": "https://example.com/very-long-url-here",
"name": "summer-campaign",
"domain": "yourbrand.com"
}'
# Response
{
"id": 9512,
"url": "https://example.com/very-long-url-here",
"name": "summer-campaign",
"full_url": "https://yourbrand.com/summer-campaign",
"workspace_id": 1
}Everything you need to ship branded short links at scale
One REST API. Create, brand, route, and analyse every link your app sends.
Create and update links
Programmatically create, update, or delete short links via REST. Bulk create up to 1,000 URLs per request. Each link gets click tracking, geo data, and device analytics out of the box.
Branded custom domains
Use your own domain (yourbrand.com/promo) on every API-created link. Connect unlimited custom domains, automatic SSL via Let's Encrypt, no DNS expertise required.
Real-time click webhooks
Subscribe to click events and receive POST callbacks within seconds. Use for real-time attribution, fraud detection, conversion tracking, or piping clicks into your data warehouse.
Analytics API
Pull click counts, geographic breakdown, device + OS data, and referrer attribution via REST. Export as JSON or stream into your BI tool. Per-link or aggregated across your account.
Built for developers — get your first short link in 5 minutes
Authenticate with a bearer token, POST a URL, get back a short link. Same request shape in any language.
curl -X POST "https://app.linklyhq.com/api/v1/link?api_key=YOUR_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"workspace_id": 1,
"url": "https://example.com/article",
"name": "blog-share"
}'What developers build with Linkly
From SMS campaigns to AI agents — one API, infinite use cases.
SMS & WhatsApp at scale
Shorten campaign URLs in real time as sends fire. Branded short links lift CTR 30–40% over generic shorteners, respect SMS character limits, and support custom Open Graph tags for rich WhatsApp previews.
Learn moreTransactional sends
Magic links, password resets, order confirmations, appointment reminders. Permanent short links with 99.9% uptime SLA — built for sends you can't afford to lose.
Learn moreIn-app sharing
Generate branded short links when your users hit "Share". Track which channels drive viral loops and which posts convert. Webhook every click into your analytics.
Learn moreYour stack, supercharged
Automate link creation in your workflows, or let AI agents manage your short links directly.
Trigger link creation from any workflow — form submissions, CRM updates, new signups, and more. No code required.
Let AI agents create and manage short links via Claude, ChatGPT, or the command line — no API wiring needed.
Simple, scaling pricing
Build on the free tier. Upgrade only when your traffic grows.
Free
For prototyping and side projects
- 1,000 API calls / month
- 500 link clicks / month
- 1 custom domain
- Full webhook + analytics API
- Community support
Growth
For teams shipping production traffic
- 100,000 API calls / month
- 50,000 link clicks / month
- Unlimited custom domains
- Priority email support
- 99.9% uptime SLA
Enterprise
For high-volume senders
- Unlimited API calls
- Volume-based click pricing
- Dedicated SLA
- SSO, audit log, custom DPA
- Slack-based support
Need a custom volume? Send us your monthly link + click forecast and we'll build a quote — contact sales. See full pricing →
Infrastructure
World-class enterprise infrastructure
Every short link redirects from the Cloudflare edge network — 300+ data centres across 100+ countries — so the redirect resolves in under 5ms, wherever your users click.
Hosted on Cloudflare
Every redirect is served from Cloudflare's global edge network — not a single origin region. No cold paths and no single point of failure.
300+ data centres worldwide
Requests resolve at the data centre nearest your user. A click in São Paulo and a click in Singapore each stay local.
Sub-5ms redirects, globally
So fast that the hop is invisible to the end user — even on the first click of a brand-new campaign link.
Security & compliance, built in
URL shortener API — frequently asked questions
- Is the URL shortener API free to use?
- Yes. Linkly's free plan includes 1,000 API calls per month and 500 link clicks per month, with one custom domain and full access to the analytics and webhook APIs. No credit card required to sign up.
- How do I authenticate API requests?
- Generate an API key under Settings → API Keys in Linkly, then pass it as an api_key query parameter on each request (for example, https://app.linklyhq.com/api/v1/link?api_key=YOUR_API_KEY). Include your workspace_id in the request body. API keys can be rotated at any time.
- What's the API rate limit?
- 100 requests per second per API key on Growth plans, with burst capacity to 500 requests per second. Enterprise plans include dedicated rate limits scaled to your usage. Rate limit headers are returned on every response so your client can self-throttle.
- Can I create branded short links via the API?
- Yes. Connect a custom domain to your Linkly account (one-time DNS step) and pass it as the domain field in your API request body (for example, "domain": "yourbrand.com"). Every link created via the API will use your branded domain — for example yourbrand.com/summer-sale instead of l.linklyhq.com/abc.
- Does Linkly provide webhooks for click events?
- Yes. Subscribe to a webhook endpoint and Linkly POSTs every click event to your URL within seconds. Payloads include link ID, click timestamp, geographic data, device and browser info, and referrer. Used for real-time attribution, fraud detection, and warehouse pipelines.
- Is there an OpenAPI spec?
- Yes. Linkly publishes an OpenAPI 3.0 spec that's importable into Postman, Insomnia, and most API client generators. The spec stays in sync with production — no version drift.
- What happens if I exceed my plan's click limit?
- Links keep redirecting — Linkly does not break in-the-wild links if you exceed your plan limits. You're notified by email and prompted to upgrade. This matters most for transactional senders who can't afford a broken link in a password-reset email.
- How do I handle high-volume SMS sends — say, 10 million links per month?
- Bulk create endpoints accept up to 1,000 URLs per request. Combined with the burst rate limits and dedicated enterprise infrastructure, Linkly customers ship 10M+ SMS links per month in production. Contact sales for a volume quote and dedicated SLA.
- What's Linkly's uptime SLA?
- 99.9% measured on the redirect path (the critical surface). Status page at status.linklyhq.com shows historical uptime. Enterprise plans include a contractual SLA with service credits.
- Does the API support GDPR-compliant data handling?
- Yes. Linkly is GDPR-compliant by default, with EU data residency available on enterprise plans. A Data Processing Addendum is available for all paid customers. The webhook payloads can be configured to exclude personally identifiable information for stricter compliance needs.
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