Guide · Create and share
Custom aliases: choose the end of your short link
A short link's random ending is seven characters nobody chose. A custom alias is a word: readable in a message, memorable in a talk, typeable from a business card. This guide covers what an alias may contain and what it may not.
What an alias is
Every link here ends in a code. Without an alias, the code is seven characters drawn from the CSPRNG: aB3xY9z. With an alias, you pick the ending — q3-launch, menu-2026, a product name — while the domain stays the same. The alias is validated the moment the link is made: taken endings are refused, and so is anything shorter than four characters, which would crowd the site's own addresses.
The rules an alias follows
- Lowercase letters, digits and single hyphens, four to forty characters.
- No brand words: an ending that spells a payment brand or the word verify reads as phishing wherever it points, so the list of such words is refused outright (see the OWASP write-up on unvalidated redirects: a trusted address that delivers the reader elsewhere is the pattern this rule exists to keep off the domain).
- No ending another link already holds: aliases are first-come, and an expired link's ending is never reissued to a different destination.
Where an alias earns its keep
A printed flyer can ask for acortarenlace.com/menu and be read aloud without spelling anything. A podcast host says the ending once. A QR code under the alias covers the people who would rather point a camera; the two together reach a room and a page (see the QR guide). The alias text is the link's only readable words, which is exactly the accessibility problem in reverse: a link should say where it goes (WCAG 2.2), and an alias does.
Questions
How long can a custom alias be?
Four to forty characters: lowercase letters, digits and single hyphens.
Can I change an alias after the link is made?
No. The address is permanent — a link that once answered keeps its address — so the ending is fixed when the link is made and never edited after.
Why is a brand name refused as an alias?
An ending that spells a known brand reads as phishing, wherever the link points. The refusal keeps such links off the domain entirely.
Do aliases cost anything?
No. Aliases are free on free links and on premium links alike.
Sources
The documents this guide's statements rest on. Each link opens in a new page.