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Free URL shortener: what free means, in days and features
Shorten with no account and the link lasts 30 days. A free account raises it to 365 days with analytics. Here is exactly where the free tier stops and why.
By Wasim Idrishi · Updated · 3 min read
Free URL shorteners fail in one of two ways. Either the link dies and takes the campaign with it, or the free tier is a trial with a countdown. It is worth knowing which one you are looking at before you use it for anything that matters.
Here is where the line sits on GC.MW, taken from the configuration the product actually runs on rather than from a marketing page.
| No account | Free account | |
|---|---|---|
| Link lifetime | 30 days | 365 days |
| Code length | 5 characters | 5 characters |
| QR code, PNG and SVG | Yes | Yes |
| Click analytics | No | Yes |
| Edit the destination | No | Yes |
| Custom alias | No | No |
| Cost | None | None |
The 30-day link is a real product, not a teaser
Paste a link on the homepage and you get a working short link with a QR code, no email, no account, no card. It resolves for 30 days. That is the right tool for a link you are about to send in a message and never think about again, which is most links.
It is the wrong tool for anything printed, anything on a physical product, anything in a document that will be read next year. For those, the account is free and the link lives twelve times longer.
What a free account changes
Analytics is the honest reason to sign up. Without an account nobody is counting on your behalf; with one you get clicks and unique visitors by day, plus the country, referrer, device and browser breakdowns. The country column uses ISO 3166-1 codes, the same strings a geo rule matches on later if you ever want one.
The second reason is the editable destination. A short link whose target you can change is worth having; one you cannot is just a longer way of writing the original URL.
Where free stops
Custom aliases are the first paid feature, and the reason is arithmetic rather than greed. There is one namespace, aliases are unique across it, and giving away words is how a namespace runs out in a month. Paid plans also drop the code length from 5 characters to 4, remove expiry entirely, and remove the small badge on bio pages.
Free tools with no account at all
The free tools do not ask for anything either. The QR generator renders in your browser and uploads nothing. The link expander shows where a short link goes before you click it. The UTM builder assembles a campaign URL without typos. The bulk shortener is the one exception, because a hundred links at a time needs an account to attach them to.
Free is not the same as forever
Say it plainly: a free anonymous link is not a permanent link, here or anywhere. If a link is going onto a menu, a poster, a van, a business card or a piece of packaging, put it on a plan or accept that it will stop working. The 30 days is written down rather than buried, which is the most useful thing a free tier can do.
More: best URL shortener, URL shortener that never expires, and what a link costs in characters where you are.
Questions people ask
Is GC.MW free to use?
Yes. Shortening without an account is free and the link lasts 30 days. A free account raises that to 365 days, adds click analytics and lets you edit the destination. No card is asked for at either step.
What happens when a free link expires?
It stops resolving and serves an expired page instead of the destination. Links in a free account are warned about before they go. Nothing is deleted silently and nothing starts pointing somewhere else.
Why do free links expire at all?
Because a redirect is a promise to keep serving traffic forever, and a free anonymous link is a promise made to nobody in particular. Expiry is what stops the table filling with abandoned links, and it is why the free tier can stay free.
Is there a catch with the free QR codes?
No. Every link has a QR code at its own URL as PNG or SVG and the SVG is print quality. The catch, if there is one, is the same as the link: a QR pointing at an expired link is a dead QR, so buy a lifetime link before anything goes to print.