Click · terms

What may not be
shortened on Click.

Two kinds of rule. The first kind the code enforces before a link exists. The second kind people enforce, by blocking a link after it is reported.

Refused by the code

These are checked when a link is made and again each time its preview is shown. A refused address gets a sentence naming the rule, and nothing is stored.

Refused	Examples
Any scheme but http and https	`javascript: data: file: ftp: mailto:`
A user name or password in the address	`https://user@host/ https://user:pass@host/`
An IP address as the host, in any spelling	`127.0.0.1 2130706433 0x7f.1 [::1]`
A host that is a single word	`localhost intranet`
A local or reserved name	The 13 suffixes listed below
A name that answers with a private or loopback address	The 4 names listed below
A link to Click itself	`labs.llc/click/ click.com.im`
A link to labs.llc’s own redirecting short links	`labs.llc/<code> labs.llc/labluxa/<code>`, a file share’s `?go=` download; a real labs.llc page is fine
A link to another shortener	The 13 hosts listed below
An address longer than 2,048 characters	Measured as sent and as stored
A space, line break, control character, invisible character or backslash	Anywhere in the address
A host that is not a valid domain name	A percent sign, an underscore, a label over 63 characters, a port outside 1 to 65535

The 13 local and reserved suffixes

.localhost
.local
.internal
.lan
.home
.corp
.intranet
.private
.localdomain
.home.arpa
.test
.invalid
.example

The 4 names that answer with private or loopback addresses

nip.io
sslip.io
localtest.me
lvh.me

Resolved on 28 September 2026: a name under nip.io or sslip.io with 10.0.0.1 written in it answered 10.0.0.1; localtest.me and lvh.me answered 127.0.0.1. Click’s server looks no name up, so it can refuse only the names written here. Any other public name that points at a private address will pass.

The 13 shortener hosts

bit.ly
cutt.ly
goo.gl
is.gd
notime.llc
ow.ly
s.id
short.gy
t.co
tiny.cc
tiny.one
tinyurl.com
v.gd

Each was read on 28 September 2026: twelve at their own home page or in Wikipedia’s URL shortening article, and notime.llc in labs.llc’s own portfolio register, which describes it as permanent short links served as 301 redirects. The list is short on purpose and is not every shortener there is: a host that is not on it, and turns out to be one, is blocked when it is reported.

Refused by rule

The code cannot read a destination, so these are enforced by people. Do not make a Click link to:

a page that imitates another site or person to collect passwords, payment details or other private information;
software that harms, or takes control of, the device that opens it;
a scam: an offer made to take money or information under false pretences;
material that is unlawful to publish or to send;
anything sent as unsolicited bulk messages, whatever it leads to.

A link that breaks these rules is blocked when it is reported. Where the host itself is the problem, the host is blocked.

What to expect from the service

Click is free and has no accounts. A link belongs to nobody and cannot be edited after it is made.
A link can be blocked at any time, without notice. A blocked link answers “410 Gone”.
Each address may make 10 links an hour and 40 a day, and Click takes at most 200 requests to make a link a day across the whole site. The store holds 50,000 links.
Making new links can be paused at any time; links already made keep opening their preview while it is.
Click is provided as it is. There is no promise that a link will work for any length of time, and links should not be the only record of an address that matters.
A preview is not an endorsement. Click does not check destinations and does not say that one is safe.

Click is part of labs.llc; the terms, privacy note and copyright for the whole site are on the legal page. What Click stores is on the privacy page, and how the checks work is on the method page.

The rest of Click

What may not beshortened on Click.