URL shortener pricing: plan a budget for clicks and QR codes
Estimate short-link credit costs, include repeat visits and shared usage, and prepare a funding plan that keeps campaign links available.
Free link creation and free clicks forever are two different offers. Before you put a short link on packaging, in a newsletter or on a poster, estimate what it will cost to keep that address working. A useful budget depends on counted visits and on who pays for them, not just on how many links you create.
This guide uses the published Links rate of 0.05 credits per counted click. Prices can change, so check current pricing before a campaign. The examples are in credits; the pricing page explains roughly what a credit is worth.
1. Define the billable activity
Creating a link in Links is free; counted clicks use credits. Opening a short link through its QR code uses the same redirect as opening it from a message, so a scan is simply a click, with no separate scan charge. Someone who only sees the address in their camera without opening it hasn’t visited the link.
Counted clicks aren’t unique people, registrations or purchases. Someone may open an address several times. Links doesn’t count the bots and link previews it recognizes, but the remaining total still isn’t an exact count of people. Use the analytics guide to keep these numbers apart.
2. Build low, expected and high scenarios
Start from your past counted clicks if you have them. For a new campaign, mark your estimates as guesses and include repeat opens, your own tests and other active placements. Don’t turn audience size into a click forecast without writing down what you assumed.
At 0.05 credits per counted click:
| Example counted clicks | Cost in credits |
|---|---|
| 1,000 | 50 |
| 10,000 | 500 |
| 50,000 | 2,500 |
The formula is counted clicks × credits per click. These are worked examples, not traffic predictions. Check often enough that you can react if real use heads towards your high scenario.
3. Budget for the whole shared balance
Say your campaign forecast is 12,000 counted clicks: 12,000 × 0.05 = 600 credits. You also expect 300 credits of other use from the same balance and want a 200-credit reserve. Your planning total is 1,100 credits. If you have 400 credits now, you need to add about 700.
Use your own numbers for every input. The reserve is your own choice, not a recommended amount. Mono and Studio use the same credits as Links, so a forecast for Links alone isn’t the whole account budget.
4. Confirm who pays before sharing
Your own links are paid from your personal account. An identity’s links are paid by its owner or its team. Write down the identity, who pays and who can add credits. Being able to edit links doesn’t mean someone can manage the team’s balance.
Keep any team subscription separate from click costs. A member’s monthly credit limit doesn’t cap clicks: visitors’ clicks are paid by the team without any member doing anything. The team management guide explains ownership and handover.
5. Plan for running out of credits
A forecast isn’t a spending limit: visitors keep clicking whether or not you’ve checked your balance. When the paying account runs out of credits, its links pause and show an “unavailable” page instead of sending people on.
Before launch, check the balance, recent use and the shared short link. Pick someone to keep an eye on them during the campaign. If links pause, add enough credits and test again; paused links come back on their own shortly after.
Keep another way to reach you, such as a readable web address or contact details, on important printed material. That’s a backup you plan yourself; Links won’t send visitors to another service.
6. Compare the full operating plan
When you compare shorteners, note what they charge for, what’s included, what happens when you go over, which edits you need and what happens to old addresses if you stop paying. Compare prices in your currency using the actual purchase terms, including any taxes or fees. A low headline price doesn’t tell you whether the service fits the way you work.
Save a short campaign record: expected and high traffic, who pays, the starting balance, the reserve, who checks and the next check date. Open the Links app to check your links, and use the troubleshooting checklist if a link stops working.