Use a shortener with no expiry policy. URLVanish links are permanent: never deleted for age, inactivity or lack of clicks. A link created today still resolves in ten years. The only links removed are those suspended for abuse. Free, unlimited, no account.
What “permanent” should mean — and usually does not
Almost every shortener describes its links as permanent. The word covers at least four different promises, and the difference only becomes visible when a link breaks.
| The promise | What it actually guarantees |
|---|---|
| “Links never expire” | No timer. Says nothing about inactivity pruning or the company's lifespan. |
| “No expiry on paid plans” | Free links can be removed. Read the free-tier terms specifically. |
| “Links are kept while active” | An inactivity policy. Unclicked links get deleted — often silently. |
| “Permanent”, unqualified | The strongest form — and only as good as the operator's longevity. |
The third row is the one that catches people out. A link printed on packaging or in a report may go months without a click. Under an inactivity policy, that is exactly the link that gets pruned — and you find out when a customer tells you.
Do Bitly links expire? Does TinyURL expire?
Bitly
Links do not expire on a timer, and existing ones keep resolving. What changes is your ability to manage them: the free plan caps monthly creation, and management features have moved between free and paid tiers over the years. See our Bitly alternatives comparison.
TinyURL
States its links are permanent and has honoured that since 2002 — among the longest track records in the industry. Not pruned for inactivity. The trade-off is a thin free feature set: no analytics, no QR generation, no free API.
Everyone else: read the terms, not the marketing page. Newer free shorteners frequently include an inactivity clause, and “free forever” on a landing page is often contradicted three clicks deeper in the terms of service.
Why short links break — the four real causes
-
The destination moved or was deleted
By far the most common, and the shortener is blameless: the redirect works perfectly and delivers the visitor to a 404. No shortener can fix this.
-
The shortening service shut down
Every link it ever issued dies at once. Google's
goo.glis the canonical example — a shortener run by one of the largest companies on earth, retired anyway, leaving links across the web pointing nowhere. -
An inactivity policy pruned it
Silent, and it targets precisely the low-traffic links most likely to be on printed material.
-
The link was suspended for abuse
Legitimate, but worth knowing it can happen if a destination is later compromised and starts serving something harmful.
Link rot is not hypothetical. Studies of link persistence consistently find that a substantial share of web links stop resolving within a decade. Choosing a permanent shortener addresses causes 2 and 3. Nothing addresses cause 1 except keeping your own destination stable — an argument for pointing short links at URLs you control wherever you can.
URLVanish's expiry policy, stated plainly
No time limit
Links are not deleted after 30 days, a year, or any other period.
No inactivity pruning
A link with zero clicks for five years is treated exactly like one clicked daily.
No account requirement
Anonymous links are as permanent as ones tied to an account — there is nothing to lapse.
No paid tier holding it hostage
There is no paid tier at all.
The single exception: links suspended for abuse. Automated scanning suspends phishing and malware links, and anyone can report a link. Details on the safety page.
Making your links survive regardless of provider
Being straight about this: no shortener can promise to outlive you, and any page telling you otherwise is overselling. If a link genuinely must survive decades, defend it properly.
Keep your own record
A spreadsheet of every short link and its destination means you can rebuild the mapping anywhere if a provider disappears. The single most effective precaution — and almost nobody does it.
Point at addresses you control
A short link to your own domain is one hop you own. A short link to a third-party page is two dependencies deep.
Use a persistent identifier
For scholarly and legal material, a DOI, Handle or Perma.cc reference is designed for permanence in a way no commercial shortener is.
Archive the destination
An archive.org snapshot preserves the content even if the original page vanishes.
Before anything goes to print, click the link yourself on a device that is not logged in to anything relevant. That catches both a wrong destination and a link that only works because you happen to have a session open.
Where permanence matters most
Print & packaging
You cannot issue a correction. The link has to outlive the print run.
QR codes
Same problem, worse: nobody can read a QR code to work out what it should have said.
Documentation
Broken links in support material generate tickets for years.
Academic & legal citation
A citation that no longer resolves undermines the work it appears in.
Email signatures
Set once, rarely revisited, quietly broken for months before anyone notices.
Evergreen social bios
The one link thousands of people click, and the last one you think to check.
Frequently asked questions
How do I create a short URL that never expires?
Use a shortener with no expiry policy. Paste your link into the box at the top of this page — the short link you get is permanent, never deleted for age, inactivity or lack of clicks. No account required.
Do Bitly links expire?
Not on a timer, and existing links keep resolving. What is constrained is management: Bitly's free plan caps monthly link creation, and features around existing links have moved between free and paid tiers over time.
Does TinyURL expire?
TinyURL states its links are permanent and has honoured that since 2002. Links there are not pruned for inactivity. The trade-off is a thin free feature set — no analytics, no QR codes, no free API.
Why do some short links stop working?
Usually the destination page moved or was deleted — the redirect still works, it just lands on a 404. Otherwise: the shortening service shut down, an inactivity policy pruned the link, or it was suspended for abuse. Only the last two are the shortener's doing.
Is there a free URL shortener that will not expire?
Yes. URLVanish links are permanent and free with no monthly cap and no account. TinyURL is also permanent and free. Be careful with newer free services that publish an inactivity clause.
Do I need an account to keep my links alive?
No. Anonymous links are exactly as permanent as ones created under an account. There is nothing to lapse. An account only adds custom aliases, click statistics and a dashboard.
What happens to my links if URLVanish shuts down?
They would stop resolving — the same as with any shortener. That is inherent to the model, not specific to us. For links that must survive decades, keep your own record of link-to-destination mappings and use a purpose-built persistent identifier such as a DOI or an archive.org snapshot alongside the short link.
Can a permanent link be removed for any reason?
Only abuse. Automated scanning suspends phishing and malware links, and anyone can report one through the abuse form. Legitimate links are never removed.