Google's own URL shortener, goo.gl, is no longer a tool you can use. Google stopped letting anyone create new links in 2019, and on August 25, 2025 it began deactivating old goo.gl links that had gone unused, which now return a 404. If you are searching for the Google URL Shortener today, there is no product left to sign up for.
The good news is that the job it did is easy to replace, and most replacements do far more than goo.gl ever did. This guide covers what happened to it, what a proper replacement needs to handle, and how to shorten and track a link once Google is out of the picture.
What happened to the Google URL Shortener
Google launched goo.gl back in 2009 and ran it for close to a decade. In 2018 the company announced it was winding the product down, and by March 2019 nobody could create a new goo.gl link. For a few years the old links kept redirecting, which is why so many of them are still sitting in old PDFs, printed flyers, and forum posts.
On July 18, 2024, Google set a final date of August 25, 2025. On that day it deactivated the goo.gl links that had shown no recent activity, and those now return a 404. Actively used links were kept working, so it was not a clean switch-off of everything. Firebase Dynamic Links, which used the same style of app.goo.gl and page.link addresses, shut down on the same day. What did not survive any of this is the ability to make a new link. There is no first-party replacement, Google has not announced one, and there is no sign it plans to. So when people search for a Google URL Shortener now, what they actually need is a different tool that does the same thing.
What a goo.gl replacement actually needs to do
goo.gl was bare by modern standards. It took a long link, handed back a short one, and in its later years barely reported anything at all. A replacement worth switching to should do more than trade a long string for a short one.
A modern URL shortener turns the long link into a short linx.ly/... address and then counts every click on the way through. You get a readable link to share and a running record of how it performs, which is the part goo.gl users lost when the analytics behind it were retired long before the redirects were.
Two features matter more than people expect. You want to set your own link ending instead of accepting a random code, and you want to change where a link points after it is already printed or posted. goo.gl let you do neither well. Both are covered further down.
See the clicks goo.gl stopped showing you
A short link that reports nothing is only half a tool. The reason to move off a plain redirect is the data on the other side of it.
Every link you create keeps its own record, and you can open it whenever you want:
- Clicks over time. The spike on the day you post, the slow tail after, the second bump when something gets reshared.
- Country. Where the people clicking actually are, which often is not where you assumed.
- Device, brand, browser, and OS. Phone or desktop, iPhone or Samsung. It matters the day a checkout page quietly breaks on mobile.
- Referrer. Where a click came from when the source passes that along.
- UTM tags. Your own labels, so the same destination stays in separate rows for each campaign you run.
If you have never read a report like this, the piece on a URL shortener with click tracking walks through what each number means and how to act on it.
Set your own link ending instead of a random code
goo.gl handed you a random string like goo.gl/x7Kp2q and that was that. A branded short link lets you choose the ending yourself, so the same link reads as linx.ly/spring-sale. It sits on the shared linx.ly domain, and the part after the slash is yours to pick.
To be clear about what this is and is not: this is a custom slug on a shared domain, not your own domain on the link. If someone promises to put your brand's domain in front of every short link, that is a different and heavier setup. A chosen slug on linx.ly covers most of what people wanted from a readable link, and it is the part goo.gl never offered.
Change where a link points without reprinting it
This is the feature goo.gl never had, and it is the one that saves the most work. A short link and its destination are two separate things. You can keep the link exactly the same while changing what it opens.
Put linx.ly/menu on a flyer, a business card, or a product label, and you are not locked into wherever it pointed the day you printed it. The page moves, the sale ends, the campaign changes, and you update the destination once from your dashboard instead of reprinting anything. With goo.gl, a link was frozen to its target the moment you made it.
A QR code for every link
Every short link you create comes with a QR code generated automatically, and scans land in the same report as clicks. If you print the code on a poster or a package, the offline scans sit next to your online clicks in one place instead of two.
Because the destination stays editable, the QR code stays useful long after it is printed. The image on the wall never changes while the page it opens can. That is the opposite of a static goo.gl link, which pointed at one address for life.
What you cannot get back
One honest point, since the search that brought you here is often about broken links. The goo.gl links Google deactivated in 2025, the ones with no recent activity, are gone. Google did not hand out a public list of where they pointed, so there is no button that revives a dead goo.gl/... link. If you still control where those links were posted, the fix is to create fresh short links and swap them in. If you do not, those clicks are lost, which is the strongest argument for owning your own links from now on.
Linxly as a goo.gl replacement
Everything above describes one tool: Linxly. It shortens a long link to a linx.ly/... address, counts every click with the country and device behind it, lets you set your own ending instead of a random code, keeps the destination editable after the link is already out, and generates a QR code for each link. That is the short list goo.gl handled in its best years, plus the parts it never did.
You are not moving old goo.gl links across, since those cannot be exported. You are making the links you need now in one account, with the clicks kept in your own dashboard instead of a service that has closed.
How to shorten a link without Google
- Copy the long URL you want to share: a product page, a form, a document, or a campaign landing page.
- Paste it into the URL shortener. Keep the random code or set your own ending, like
linx.ly/menu. - Share the link, or print its QR code. Add a UTM tag if the same link is going into more than one place.
- Open your dashboard whenever you want and read the clicks by day, country, and device.
Frequently asked questions
Does Google still have a URL shortener?
No. goo.gl stopped accepting new links in 2019, so there is no way to create one. On August 25, 2025 Google also deactivated the old goo.gl links that were no longer in use, and those return a 404. Google has not released a replacement.
Do old goo.gl links still work?
Some do, some do not. On August 25, 2025 Google deactivated the goo.gl links that had no recent activity, and those now return a 404. Links that were still being used were kept alive. Either way you cannot create new ones, so if a link matters, replace it with one you control.
What is the best Google URL Shortener alternative?
Pick one that does more than a plain redirect. The four things to check for are click tracking, a custom link ending, an editable destination, and a QR code for each link. Those four cover what goo.gl did and the parts it never did.
Can I choose my own link ending?
Yes. Instead of a random code, you can set a custom slug like linx.ly/spring-sale. It sits on the shared linx.ly domain, and you pick the text after the slash.
Is it free?
You can try Linxly free for 7 days with full access. After that, plans start at $0.99 a month, and you can cancel anytime.