Do you want to move to Bitly from another link manager? Fantastic! Follow the steps here to re-shorten your links in Bitly. This way, they'll continue to work normally.
Note that there may be a downtime of up to 24 hours as your custom domain verifies. Depending on how many links you have to import, the bulk shortening process may take a few additional hours.
Each Bitly subscription plan has different monthly limits for link shortening. Make sure your plan’s limit is high enough for the number of links you need to import. Check out the limits on our pricing page.
Interested in a custom Enterprise subscription? You may have more options for migrating your links than what we outline here. Reach out to our sales team to learn more.
Step 1: Add your custom domain to your account
First, add your custom domain to your account. Make sure you configure your DNS settings to point at Bitly. Then, follow the steps in How to add your own custom domain to Bitly.
Your custom domain may take up to 24 hours to verify. Once it's verified, you can begin shortening links with your custom domain.
Mobile deep links
If you’ll be importing mobile deep links, like Google’s Firebase Dynamic Links (FDL), be sure to set up your mobile apps in Bitly and configure your custom domain for deep linking.
Step 2: Add your links
Once your domain is verified, start adding your links into your account. There are a few ways to do this:
Uploading links one at a time
If you don't have a large number of links to move into Bitly, you can shorten your links one at a time. Using the same long URLs from your previous links, select your custom domain from the dropdown and enter your existing back-half into the Custom back-half field.
Uploading links through a bulk upload
If you have a lot of links, use our bulk upload process. You can create a CSV file with all of your links, including the destination URLs and the custom short links. For each destination URL, enter the back-half exactly as it is in your current link.
When you create your upload file, be sure to keep all of the columns and headers from the template. Here's the CSV template.
For help with this process, visit How to shorten links in bulk.
Uploading links with the Bitly API
With a little bit of technical know-how, you can use the Bitly API to import your links. Visit our dev site for complete documentation.
The first step is to generate an API access token. Then, create a script to POST to the /v4/bitlinks endpoint. This shortens the link with your custom domain. Each link needs a single request.
To get the same exact short link as you currently have, send a second POST request, this time to /v4/custom_bitlinks. This takes the short link you just created and updates it with the custom back-half you indicate in the request.
Step 3: Use your links like normal!
Once you generate your links, they'll resume working wherever you've already shared them. Remember that there may be a delay during which the links don't work, while your custom domain verifies and while all of the links get shortened.
Your Bitly engagement data will show all clicks on your links starting when you re-shortened them in your new account.