Paste your link, open Advanced options, and pick an expiry — 1 hour, 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days, 1 year, or an exact date and time. After that the link stops working and stops showing where it went. Links are permanent by default; you only get an expiry if you ask for one.
How to set an expiry
Paste the address
In the box at the top of this page.
Open “Advanced options”
Collapsed by default, directly under the input.
Choose from the Expires menu
Pick a preset, or choose “Pick a date…” to name an exact moment.
Share it
The link behaves normally until the moment you set, then stops.
The presets
| Option | Typical use |
|---|---|
| Never (default) | Ordinary links. Nothing expires unless you ask. |
| 1 hour | A one-off handover while you are both online. |
| 24 hours | Something to action today — a form, an approval, a meeting room. |
| 7 days | A file for a colleague, a draft for review. |
| 30 days | A campaign, a seasonal offer, a time-boxed download. |
| 1 year | Annual documents you would rather not leave reachable forever. |
| Pick a date | An offer that ends at a known moment, or an event that finishes on a set day. |
What happens after it expires
The link stops redirecting immediately at the moment you set. Visitors get a plain page saying it has expired, and the destination is never shown on it.
Expired links return 410 Gone, not 404. That tells search engines the link genuinely existed and is now deliberately finished, so it drops out of the index cleanly instead of being retried.
There is no recovery. A link with an expiry is finished when it is finished — create a new one if you need to re-share.
Expiry or click limit?
They answer different questions, and you can use both.
Expiry — time based
Dies at a moment you choose, whether it was opened once or a thousand times. Right when the deadline is the point: an offer ending, an event finishing.
Click limit — usage based
Dies after a set number of opens, however long that takes. Right when the audience is the point — see self-destructing links.
Set both and whichever happens first ends the link. A password can be added on top of either — see password-protected links.
If you actually wanted the opposite
Plenty of people searching for “temporary link” are really checking that a shortener will not quietly delete their links. URLVanish does not: links are permanent by default and are never removed for inactivity or age.
If that is what you were after, the permanent URL shortener page covers which services delete links and which do not.
Frequently asked questions
Do URLVanish links expire on their own?
No. They are permanent unless you set an expiry or a click limit yourself. Nothing is deleted for inactivity or age.
What is the longest expiry I can set?
Ten years. Beyond that, just leave the expiry as Never.
Can I change the expiry after creating the link?
Not on an anonymously created link — nothing ties it to you. Create a new link with the expiry you want.
Does the countdown start when I create it or when it is first opened?
When you create it. The presets are measured from the moment the link is made, not from first use.
Will an expired link reveal where it used to point?
No. The expired page never shows the destination.
Can someone preview a temporary link before it expires?
Yes — adding a + shows the destination and the expiry without opening the link. See checking a link.