Give a link an end date — and somewhere to go next
Set the minute a short link stops working, and choose the page visitors see afterwards instead of an error. Expiry is checked at the edge before any other rule on the link.
On every plan, including Free · No credit card required
Quick answer
What is link expiration?
Link expiration is an end date attached to a short link: after the date and time you set — down to the minute — the link stops sending visitors to its destination. ClikSo checks the expiry at the edge before any other rule, then either redirects to a URL you chose or returns a 410 Gone page.
- Included free — every shortener we compared charges for it
- Every planIncluded free — every shortener we compared charges for it
- How precisely the expiry date and time can be set
- To the minuteHow precisely the expiry date and time can be set
- Where expired visitors land instead of a dead page
- Custom URLWhere expired visitors land instead of a dead page
- What an expired link returns when no redirect is set
- 410 GoneWhat an expired link returns when no redirect is set
- On every plan including Free — Bitly, Short.io, Dub.co and Cutt.ly all charge for it
- Expiry is set to the minute and checked before country, device or split-testing rules run
- No click-limit expiry — ClikSo links expire on a date and time, never after N clicks
- Archiving is separate and immediate: it stops the URL resolving now, and can be undone
How to set an expiration date on a link
Four steps, and the link keeps the URL it already had.
Open Link Expiration on the link
Create a link, or open one you have already shared, and switch on Link Expiration. Adding an expiry to a link that is already in circulation does not change its URL, so anything printed or posted keeps working until the date you set.
Pick the date and time
The date picker goes down to the minute, not just the day. A launch link can stop at 09:00 on the dot, and an offer can end at 23:59 rather than some time overnight.
Add a redirect URL for afterwards
Fill in the Redirect URL field with somewhere useful — the next campaign, an "offer ended" page, your homepage. This is the field most shorteners do not have, and it turns an expired link from a dead end into a second chance.
The edge does the rest
Expiry is checked in the Cloudflare data centre nearest the visitor, before any country, device or split-testing rule is evaluated. Before the date the link redirects normally; after it, visitors go to your redirect URL, or get a 410 Gone page if you left it empty.
The life of an expiring link
One moment ends it, and you decide what happens on the other side of that moment.
Created
12 Sep 2026, 09:00
The short link starts resolving the moment you save it.
Live
12 Sep → 31 Dec
Visitors go to the destination, with any country, device or split rules applied.
Expires
31 Dec 2026, 23:59
Checked at the edge before any other rule on the link.
From that minute on, the same short URL answers with
- Redirect URL setexample.com/next-offerLate arrivals land on a page you chose — the next campaign, the waitlist, the newsroom post.
- Left empty410 GoneThe link reports itself finished rather than broken, to people and to crawlers alike.
What people use it for
Anything that has a last day — and a sensible place to send the people who miss it.
Limited-time offers
A discount that ends on Sunday night should stop working on Sunday night. Set the minute it expires and point the redirect at the next promotion so late clickers still land on something you sell.
Event registration
Registration closes, the link closes. Send everyone who clicks afterwards to the waitlist form or the recording page rather than a sold-out checkout.
Embargoed announcements
Share a press link that only has to work for the week of the announcement, then redirects to the permanent newsroom post once the news is old.
Temporary document shares
Send a quote, a draft or a report that should not stay open forever. Expiry is free; add password protection on the Starter plan and the link is both gated and time-boxed.
Printed QR codes for one season
A QR code on a poster cannot be recalled. Give the link behind it an end date and a redirect, so next year the same printed code sends people to this year’s page instead of a stale one.
Links you want back
Expiry is a date; archiving is a switch. Archive a link to take it out of circulation right now, and un-archive it to bring the same URL back.
Link expiration across link shorteners
Most shorteners can expire a link, every one of them charges for it, and far fewer let you decide where the expired traffic goes.
| Capability | ClikSo | Bitly | Short.io | Dub.co | Cutt.ly |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Included on the free plan | |||||
| Cheapest plan that includes it | Free | Not published | $14.94/mo | $27/mo | $22.92/mo |
| Set an expiry date and time on a link | |||||
| Send expired visitors to a URL you choose |
Competitor details taken from each provider's own published pricing and documentation, last verified 16 September 2026. Prices are per month billed yearly. Bitly confirms expiry as a paid feature in its help centre but does not publish the tier it starts on.
Good to know
- The time you pick is read in your own timezone and stored as one exact moment, so a teammate abroad sees the same instant rather than the same wall-clock time. There is a single expiry per link — no recurring windows, and no way to say "weekdays only".
- There is no click-limit expiry. ClikSo links expire on a date and time — nothing expires after a set number of clicks, on any plan.
- If you do not set a redirect URL, an expired link returns a 410 Gone page. That is deliberate — it tells crawlers the link is finished — but it is an error page, not a landing page.
- Archiving is not the same thing. Archiving removes the link from the resolver immediately so the URL stops working, and un-archiving restores it. Expiry is scheduled; archiving is a switch you flip.
- Clicks collected before a link expired stay in your analytics, within your plan’s retention window — 30 days on Free, 90 days on Starter, a year on Pro.
Link expiration by plan
Link expiration is on every plan, including Free — the plan only changes how long the clicks it collected stay visible. Password protection is the paid half of the pair: it starts on Starter, and the two combine on one link.
Frequently asked questions
Open the link in ClikSo, switch on Link Expiration, and pick a date and time — the picker goes down to the minute. You can optionally add a redirect URL for visitors who arrive after that moment. The link keeps the same short URL, so you can add an expiry to a link you have already shared.
It stops sending visitors to the destination. If you set a redirect URL, expired visitors are sent there instead. If you left that field empty, the link returns a 410 Gone page, which tells both people and crawlers that the link is finished rather than broken.
Yes. Open the link, change the date to a later one or switch Link Expiration off entirely, and save. The short URL never changes, so an expired link can be brought back without reprinting or resharing anything.
No, and the difference matters. Self-destructing link tools such as one-time-secret services exist to share a password or a note once and then destroy it, and the link dies on first view. A ClikSo expiring link is a normal short link that anyone can open as many times as they like until the date you set.
Expiry is a date in the future; archiving takes effect now. Archiving removes the link from the resolver so the URL stops working immediately, and un-archiving puts it straight back. Use expiry when you know the end date, and archiving when you have decided to pull a link today.
Yes, on its paid plans, but Bitly does not publish which tier turns it on and it is not available on the free plan. Expired Bitly links show an error page — there is no field for sending expired visitors to a URL of your choosing.
Yes, and they are priced differently. Link expiration is on every plan including Free, while password protection starts on the Starter plan at $4.99 per month billed yearly. Both are per-link settings, so a Starter link can ask for a password until its expiry date passes and then redirect somewhere else — but on Free you can set the expiry without the password.
Every plan includes it, including Free — the expiry date, the minute-level time and the custom redirect URL are all available without paying. That is unusual: Bitly, Short.io, Dub.co and Cutt.ly each hold link expiration behind a paid tier.
Related features
Or see everything in the full feature list.
Password protection
Put a password in front of any short link. Stored AES-256-GCM encrypted, checked at the edge.
Starter and aboveDynamic QR codes
Branded QR codes you can re-point after printing — your colours, your logo, up to 4K in PNG, SVG or PDF.
On every plan, including FreeClick analytics
Country, city, device, browser, OS and referrer for every click — with fifteen filters and no double counting.
On every plan, including FreeLast reviewed 16 September 2026 against the live product. Competitor details come from each provider's own published pricing. See the full feature list or ClikSo vs Bitly.
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