Comparing link shorteners on price can feel a lot like comparing phone plans. The monthly number is the easy part, and the interesting stuff is hiding in what each plan actually counts.
Short.io pricing is a good example. I tested the free plan and then paid for a month for my Short.io review. It's one of the most affordable link shortening tools I've tried, with a couple of quirks in how it measures usage that you should know about before you pick a plan.
It's also pretty clearly made for technical founders and indie hackers (the kind of people who enjoy setting up their own tools), and you can tell by which features come cheap and which ones cost extra. Once you know what each plan is really counting, picking one gets a lot easier.
Key takeaways
- Short.io has five plans: Free, Hobby ($5 a month), Pro ($18), Team ($48) and Enterprise ($148), on monthly billing. Paying annually saves 17%.
- The Free plan's 1,000 links and Hobby's 2,500 are lifetime totals, and links you create by API, bulk or import come out of the same pool.
- Pro gives you unlimited links made by hand, but imported, bulk and API links count toward 10,000 a year.
- A/B testing, device targeting and Post pages are on every plan, while extra users, city routing and deep links start at Team.
- Short.io doesn't charge overages, and refunds are up to Short.io's discretion.
- Rebrandly is a good alternative for larger brands, companies in regulated industries (finance and healthcare) or who need to create branded short links in bulk.
How much does Short.io cost?
Short.io costs $0, $5, $18, $48 or $148 a month on monthly billing, or $0, $50, $180, $480 or $1,480 a year if you pay annually.
Here’s a comparison table of Short.io’s pricing plans as of the time this article was published:
How do Short.io's link limits work?
Short.io's link limits depend on how you create the link and which plan you're on, and there are three kinds to keep track of. This is the part of Short.io's pricing I'd spend the most time on before paying.
The first is the lifetime limit on Free and Hobby. Those plans give you 1,000 and 2,500 links for the life of the account (yes, total, not per month), and links you create through the API, bulk tools, CSV import or apps like Zapier all come out of that same total.
The second is the yearly allowance on Pro and Team, which Short.io calls link automation. Links you make by hand in the dashboard are unlimited, but anything you create through the API, Bulk Create or a CSV import counts toward 10,000 a year on Pro and 100,000 on Team.
The third is clicks. Free gives you 50,000 tracked clicks a month, Hobby is 100K, and Pro and above are unlimited.
Is Short.io free?
Yes, and Short.io's free plan includes more than most I've tested, as long as 1,000 links over the life of your account is enough.
On Free, you get 5 custom domains, device targeting, A/B testing, QR codes, link bundles and Post, which is Short.io's hosted content pages.
When I tested device targeting, iPhone and Android each landed on their own page. You can use the free plan for business, too, with a few limits to plan around:
- The 1,000-link cap covers the life of your account.
- You get 1 user.
- Conversion tracking stops at 50 conversions a month.
- Stats filters stop at date range, time zone and human vs. bot clicks.
The free domain is the other catch. Short.io gives you subdomains on its shared .s.gy domain, and you have to verify a phone number before you can use one.
I'd connect your own domain if you’re using Short.io as a business, since anyone can sign up for a .s.gy subdomain (which doesn't exactly scream trustworthy in someone's inbox).
Is Short.io Hobby worth $5 a month?
Hobby is worth $5 a month if you want country routing and a bit more room than Free, and it's the cheapest paid plan of any link tool I've reviewed. It keeps the lifetime link cap, though, just at 2,500 instead of 1,000.
Hobby also adds referrer hiding, 7 custom domains, geo-targeting, 100,000 tracked clicks a month and 200 conversions. For a side project or a small site that makes a few hundred links a year, that's plenty.
What do you get on Short.io Pro?
Pro costs $18 a month ($15 if you pay annually) and adds the link controls I'd expect from a paid link shortener, including:
- Link expiration
- Click limits
- Password protection
- Link cloaking
You also get 10 custom domains, unlimited tracked clicks and unlimited conversions. Bulk Create, the spreadsheet-style editor, is on every plan.
Pro is still a one-person plan, though. You get 1 user seat, and analytics filters are limited to date range, time zone and bots.
If your team needs more insights, like which links lead to signups and purchases, Rebrandly's Conversion Tracking connects your branded links to those outcomes.
Who needs Short.io Team or Enterprise?
On Team, you get unlimited users, 50 custom domains and 100,000 automated links a year. The Team account also adds city and region targeting, mobile deep links, end-to-end encryption and a 99.9% uptime guarantee.
From what I saw in the app, Team is also where you get link permissions and the full set of stats filters, including country, referrer and UTM source. That gives you the ability to slice clicks by more than one thing at a time.
Enterprise adds SSO, multiple teams, raw click data exports and custom agreements.
Pricing starts at $148 and also offers custom quotes with volume discounts, so it's worth asking if you have a lot of links or users.
Which Short.io plan do you need?
The best way to pick a Short.io plan is to think about how you create links, then who else needs access.
Matching those two things to a plan looks like this:
If you're deciding between Pro and Team, add up how many links you'll import or create by API in a year, since Pro caps those at 10,000.
For a side-by-side look at where Short.io and Rebrandly differ beyond price, our Rebrandly vs. Short.io comparison goes through it feature by feature.
What should you know before you buy a Short.io plan?
Short.io doesn't charge overages or setup fees, so you won't get surprise charges for going over a limit, but refunds aren't guaranteed.
The billing details from Short.io's pricing FAQ, docs and terms of service that I'd know first:
- Paid plans come with a 7-day free trial, and Short.io's docs say support can stretch it to 30 days if you ask.
- Plans renew automatically, and Short.io handles refunds case by case, at its own discretion.
- Upgrades and downgrades take effect right away, with a prorated charge or credit.
- If you cancel, you drop to Free and your links keep working within Free's limits.
- Short.io gives you notice before a price change, and it kicks in at the end of your billing cycle.
Domains are an extra cost on every plan. You can connect a domain you already own for free, or buy one inside Short.io at regular registrar prices.
Each plan also comes with a monthly AI budget, from $1 on Free to $100 on Enterprise, and features like AI QR codes draw from it.
Is Short.io worth the price?
If you're a technical founder or a small team that likes setting up your own tools, Short.io's pricing is built around you, since most of the features you'd tinker with sit on the cheaper plans.
It's a harder fit for a marketing team because it’s built (and priced for) individual users.
If you'd rather have a tool that's built for teams from the start, Rebrandly is a link intelligence platform, and you can get started for free.
FAQ
Are Short.io QR codes free?
Yes, every Short.io plan includes QR codes, Free included. AI QR codes are the exception, since each one draws from your plan's monthly AI budget ($1 a month on Free).
Can you use a custom domain on Short.io's free plan?
Yes. Short.io's free plan lets you connect up to 5 custom domains you already own, and the limit goes up to 7 on Hobby, 10 on Pro, 50 on Team and unlimited on Enterprise.
Is the Short.io API free?
Yes, the API is included on every plan at 50 requests per second. On Free and Hobby, links you create by API come out of your lifetime link total, and on Pro and Team they count toward the yearly allowance.
What happened to Short.io's Personal plan?
Short.io renamed its Personal plan to Pro in January 2025, when it also added the $5 Hobby plan and lowered prices on its other plans. That's why some review sites still list a "Personal" plan at $18 a month.
