User guide

1. 1 Paste a long URL into the box on the home page. You can leave out https://.
2. 2 Optionally open Options to set a custom alias, expiry, password or management mode.
3. 3 Press Shorten. Copy the short link, open it, or show its QR code.

Links you create are remembered in Recent links on this device only. Clearing it does not delete the links. If you shorten the same URL with the same settings again, bito.li reuses the existing link.

Links to bito.li or lnk.ink themselves, and to sites on our blocklists, cannot be shortened.

Choose your own ending, like bito.li/spring-sale. An alias has 5–64 characters: letters, digits, dots, underscores and hyphens. It cannot start or end with a symbol or have two symbols in a row. Names used by bito.li pages (for example login or docs) are reserved.

Aliases are first come, first served. If an alias is taken, pick another.

Add a password (up to 64 characters, no spaces) and visitors will be asked for it before they are redirected. Share the password separately from the link.

For Stats only links the password also unlocks the statistics page. For Full links, statistics need the secret code instead.

Under Expires, choose Never, a number of minutes, hours or days, or a number of clicks (up to 100,000,000). When the time passes or the limit is reached, visitors see an “expired” page instead of the destination.

With a Full link you can extend or change the expiry later, even after it has expired.

Under Management, decide what can be done with the link after it is created. This cannot be changed later.

• Full (default): click statistics, and you can edit or delete the link with its secret code or from your account.
• Stats only: anyone with the link can view its statistics, but the link cannot be edited or deleted.
• None: no statistics and no management. The link simply redirects.

A Full link created without an account comes with a secret code like s-3f9-a1c-07b. It is your key to that link: with it you can view statistics, change the destination, password or expiry, and delete the link.

bito.li also keeps the secret in Recent links on the device you used, so the stats button works there without typing it.

Open the stats page from Stats next to a link, or go to bito.li/d/ followed by the short code. You will see:

• Total clicks and QR scans, and clicks per day for the last 30 days
• Top countries and cities, devices, browsers, operating systems and referrers
• The most recent clicks

Protected links ask for the secret code or password first. Breakdowns refresh within a few minutes of a click.

Every link has a QR code. Press QR code on the result or in your dashboard and download it as PNG (for documents and social media) or SVG (for print, scales to any size).

Scans of the QR code are counted separately as QR scans in the statistics, so you can see how much traffic comes from print.

With an account you can publish a single page that collects all your links, at yourname.bito.li and bito.li/u/yourname.

1. 1 Open Bio page from the account menu.
2. 2 Pick your address, then add your profile, links and design.
3. 3 Use the preview to check it, then share your page address in your social profiles.

Sign up with email, Google or GitHub to manage links from any device. The dashboard lists your links with search, filters and sorting, and lets you create, edit and delete them.

• Edit a link to change its destination, title, password or expiry.
• Deleted links go to Trash and can be restored for 30 days.
• In Settings you can change your email and password, connect Google or GitHub, and sign out other sessions.

When you sign in, links you created as a guest on that device are added to your account automatically.

For links from another device, use Import in the dashboard: enter each short code (or short URL) with its secret code, one per line, up to 50 at a time. Only Full links that do not already belong to another account can be imported.

Use Export to download all your links as CSV (for spreadsheets) or JSON (for developers and backups). The file includes secret codes, so keep it private.

Links are checked against blocklists and Google Safe Browsing. Harmful links are blocked and visitors see a warning instead. If you find a short link used for phishing, malware or spam, please report it.

Want to automate any of this? See the API reference.