Developer Hub

REST API & Sanctum Documentation

Programmatically create short links, customize branded domains, extract click analytics, and manage link collections in real-time.

Step 1: Authentication & Token Format

All requests to protected API endpoints require a valid Sanctum API Key passed in the HTTP Authorization request header.

Why does my API key start with a number and a pipe symbol (e.g. 5|...)?
Laravel Sanctum formats API tokens as {TOKEN_ID}|{SECRET_TOKEN} (for example: 5|7aaa71f1e4c2bffd8104575cc171dac966642bb7e51f4b4070b4640ef0cb2010). The 5| represents your token ID in the database. You must include the complete string including 5| in your Bearer header!

Authorization: Bearer 5|7aaa71f1e4c2bffd8104575cc171dac966642bb7e51f4b4070b4640ef0cb2010

POST

Create Short URL

https://freeurlshortner.com/api/v1/links/shorten

Request Parameters (JSON Body):

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`original_url`	String (URL)	Required	The long URL to shorten (must start with `http://` or `https://`).
`domain`	String	Optional	Branded shortener domain (e.g. `freeurlshortner.com`, `linktr.top`, `domain-name.com`).
`custom_alias`	String	Optional	Custom slug (e.g. `my-promo-2026`).
`password`	String	Optional	Set a password to protect the short link.
`redirect_type`	Integer	Optional	HTTP redirect type: `301` (Permanent), `302` (Temporary), or `307`.

curl -X POST "https://freeurlshortner.com/api/v1/links/shorten" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer 5|7aaa71f1e4c2bffd8104575cc171dac966642bb7e51f4b4070b4640ef0cb2010" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Accept: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "original_url": "https://example.com/target-landing-page",
    "domain": "freeurlshortner.com",
    "custom_alias": "my-promo-2026"
  }'

<?php
$apiKey = "5|7aaa71f1e4c2bffd8104575cc171dac966642bb7e51f4b4070b4640ef0cb2010";
$url = "https://freeurlshortner.com/api/v1/links/shorten";

$data = [
    "original_url" => "https://example.com/target-landing-page",
    "domain" => "freeurlshortner.com",
    "custom_alias" => "my-promo-2026"
];

$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_POST => true,
    CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => json_encode($data),
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
        "Authorization: Bearer {$apiKey}",
        "Content-Type: application/json",
        "Accept: application/json"
    ]
]);

$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

$result = json_decode($response, true);
print_r($result);
?>

const apiKey = "5|7aaa71f1e4c2bffd8104575cc171dac966642bb7e51f4b4070b4640ef0cb2010";

fetch("https://freeurlshortner.com/api/v1/links/shorten", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "Authorization": `Bearer ${apiKey}`,
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
    "Accept": "application/json"
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    original_url: "https://example.com/target-landing-page",
    domain: "freeurlshortner.com",
    custom_alias: "my-promo-2026"
  })
})
.then(response => response.json())
.then(data => console.log("Short URL:", data.data.short_url))
.catch(error => console.error("Error:", error));

import requests

api_key = "5|7aaa71f1e4c2bffd8104575cc171dac966642bb7e51f4b4070b4640ef0cb2010"
url = "https://freeurlshortner.com/api/v1/links/shorten"

headers = {
    "Authorization": f"Bearer {api_key}",
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
    "Accept": "application/json"
}

payload = {
    "original_url": "https://example.com/target-landing-page",
    "domain": "freeurlshortner.com",
    "custom_alias": "my-promo-2026"
}

response = requests.post(url, json=payload, headers=headers)
print(response.json())

Example JSON Success Response (201 Created):

{
  "success": true,
  "message": "Short URL created successfully.",
  "data": {
    "id": 42,
    "uuid": "9b1deb4d-3b7d-4bad-9bdd-2b0d7b3dcb6d",
    "short_code": "my-promo-2026",
    "short_url": "https://domain-name.com/my-promo-2026",
    "original_url": "https://example.com/target-landing-page",
    "domain": "domain-name.com",
    "clicks_count": 0,
    "created_at": "2026-08-12T06:40:09+00:00"
  }
}

GET

List My Short Links

https://freeurlshortner.com/api/v1/links

Returns a paginated list of all short links created under your account.

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer 5|7aaa71f1e4c2bffd8104575cc171dac966642bb7e51f4b4070b4640ef0cb2010" \
  "https://freeurlshortner.com/api/v1/links?page=1"

DELETE

Revoke Short Link

https://freeurlshortner.com/api/v1/links/{id}

Permanently revokes and erases a short URL by its numeric ID.

curl -X DELETE \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer 5|7aaa71f1e4c2bffd8104575cc171dac966642bb7e51f4b4070b4640ef0cb2010" \
  "https://freeurlshortner.com/api/v1/links/42"