Link safety checker

Check where a link goes before you open it

The danger of a link is that you can’t read it. A short URL hides its destination entirely, and even a full URL can point somewhere you don’t expect. This checker resolves the link to its real destination on our server — nothing opens on your device — and layers on the signals that separate a safe link from a phishing one.

What we check

• Final destination and redirect chain. Every hop the link takes, and where it truly ends up.
• Malware & phishing. The destination is checked against Google Safe Browsing’s threat lists.
• Domain age. Newly registered domains are a strong phishing signal.
• HTTPS. Whether the connection is encrypted.
• Lookalike & homograph domains. paypa1.com or a non-Latin impersonation of a real brand.
• Chained shorteners. A destination that is itself another shortener — a classic way to hide a bad link.

Short links and the honest problem

Short links have the same weakness as QR codes: they hide the destination. It would be dishonest for a URL shortener to write about link safety and skip this — so, plainly: any shortener can be abused for phishing, including ours. What differs is what the platform does about it. We scan every destination for malware and phishing when a link is created and recheck periodically, expire unclaimed anonymous links after 30 days, let anyone preview a link by appending +, and action every abuse report. If safety matters when you choose a shortener, ask whether it scans destinations and offers previews — several popular ones do neither.

Just want the destination?

If you only need to see where a short link leads — without the full safety breakdown — the link expander is the quicker tool.