// expand and inspect short links before you click
Safely expand and inspect shortened URLs before clicking. Preview destination of bit.ly, t.co, tinyurl and any short link without visiting the site.
Paste a short URL to inspect
We follow all redirects and reveal the final destination — no page visit neededDrop any shortened URL (bit.ly, t.co, tinyurl, etc.) into the input field above.
We follow the redirect chain server-side — your browser never visits the destination.
See each redirect hop, the final destination domain, and a safety assessment before deciding to click.
URL shorteners like bit.ly, t.co, and TinyURL hide the real destination behind a short code. This tool follows every redirect hop server-side — your browser never touches the target site — and shows you exactly where the link leads before you click.
Yes — that's the whole point. We expand the URL server-side using HTTP HEAD requests. Your browser never actually visits the destination page, so you're protected from drive-by downloads, tracking pixels, and malicious scripts.
All of them. We follow standard HTTP 301/302/307/308 redirects, which every shortener uses. This includes bit.ly, t.co, tinyurl.com, ow.ly, buff.ly, rb.gy, cutt.ly, lnk.to, rebrand.ly, and any custom shortener built on standard redirects.
301 = permanent redirect, 302/307 = temporary redirect, 200 = final destination reached, 403 = access forbidden, 404 = page not found, 5xx = server error. Each hop in the chain shows its status code so you can understand the full redirect path.
Some servers block automated HEAD requests, require cookies/JavaScript, enforce rate limiting, or use geo-blocking. In these cases we show the last reachable hop in the chain. The error message will describe the specific issue encountered.
Absolutely. Phishing emails frequently use shortened URLs to hide malicious destinations. Paste the link from a suspicious email here to see where it actually leads before deciding whether to click or report it.
We follow up to 10 redirect hops per request, which covers the vast majority of real-world URL shortener chains. If a redirect loop is detected (the same URL appears twice in the chain), we stop immediately and flag it.
A URL Shortener Preview tool allows you to safely expand and inspect shortened URLs before clicking on them. URL shorteners like bit.ly, t.co, TinyURL, and ow.ly replace long web addresses with compact codes, which makes links easier to share but also hides the real destination — creating a security and privacy risk.
Our URL Shortener Preview tool resolves the full redirect chain on our server, meaning your browser never visits the potentially unsafe destination. You get to see exactly where a link leads, how many hops it takes, what HTTP status codes are returned, and whether the final domain looks legitimate — all without any risk to your device.
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Shortened URLs are one of the most common vectors for phishing attacks, malware distribution, and privacy-invading tracking. Because the destination is hidden behind a random short code, you have no way of knowing whether a link leads to a legitimate site or a malicious one — just by looking at it.
Consider these scenarios: a shortened link in a corporate email could redirect to a fake login page designed to steal credentials. A shortened social media link might lead to a site that automatically downloads malware. A marketing email link might pass through several affiliate trackers before reaching the destination, leaking your click data to multiple third parties.
By expanding the URL before clicking, you can verify the final domain, check the number of redirect hops (more hops sometimes indicates obfuscation), and make an informed decision about whether to proceed.
When you click a shortened URL, your browser sends an HTTP request to the shortener's server. The server responds with a redirect status code — typically 301 (permanent redirect) or 302 (temporary redirect) — along with a Location header pointing to the next URL. Your browser automatically follows this redirect, sometimes through multiple hops, until it reaches a server that responds with 200 OK (meaning the final page was found).
Our tool performs this entire process on our server using HTTP HEAD requests (which fetch only the headers, not the page content), collecting each hop in the chain and presenting them to you in a readable format. Because we use HEAD requests, we never load any JavaScript, images, or other potentially harmful content from the destination.
Understanding HTTP status codes helps you interpret redirect chains. A 200 means the page was found successfully. 301 and 308 indicate permanent redirects, while 302, 303, and 307 are temporary. A 403 means access was forbidden, 404 means the page was not found, and 5xx codes indicate server-side errors. When a shortened URL leads through multiple redirect hops with unusual status codes, that can be a warning sign worth investigating.
After expanding a shortened URL, look for these red flags in the final destination: misspellings of well-known brands (like "paypa1.com" instead of "paypal.com"), unusual top-level domains for trusted companies, extremely long and complex URLs with many parameters, IP addresses used instead of domain names, and domains registered very recently. If the final URL looks suspicious, do not proceed — report the link to your IT team or the platform where you found it.
The most widely used URL shorteners include bit.ly (used by businesses and marketers), t.co (used automatically by Twitter/X for all links), tinyurl.com (one of the oldest shorteners), ow.ly (Hootsuite's shortener), buff.ly (Buffer's shortener), rb.gy (Rebrandly), and lnk.to (used for music and media). Our tool handles all of these and any other service that uses standard HTTP redirect responses.
Beyond security risks, URL shorteners often serve as tracking mechanisms. Many shortener services log every click, capturing your IP address, browser user agent, geographic location, and the time of the click. Some links pass through multiple affiliate tracking systems, each collecting data about you. By previewing the full redirect chain, you can see how many tracking hops your click would pass through and make an informed privacy decision before engaging with the link.
Security professionals and developers use URL expansion tools to audit redirect chains in their own applications, verify that marketing links are routing correctly, test that HTTPS redirects are working as expected, and investigate phishing campaigns without exposing their devices. Our tool is also useful for QA engineers who want to verify that shortened URLs in their products resolve to the correct destinations across all redirect hops.