If your TinyURL link now shows an ad or a preview/interstitial screen before sending visitors to your destination, this usually means the link was created using our old, deprecated API endpoint. This article explains what changed, how to remove the ad screen, and how to avoid the issue going forward.
What’s Happening
Recent changes added an interstitial ad/preview screen to links created through our old API endpoint (http://tinyurl.com/api-create.php). Your link still works: after a few seconds, it redirects to the correct destination URL. The ad screen simply appears first.
It is possible to remove this screen from your existing links (see How to Remove the Ad/Preview Screen below).
About the Old API Endpoint
The old API endpoint at http://tinyurl.com/api-create.php should be considered deprecated. In reality, it was never officially supported. You can read more about this in our blog post: Retiring Our Old API Endpoint.
Our official API is fully supported and documented here: TinyURL API. We strongly encourage you to migrate to the official API to avoid any future issues.
Please note: Links created with the old API cannot be associated with a registered account, modified, or deleted under any circumstances, because we are unable to independently verify who owns them.
How to Remove the Ad/Preview Screen
You can request to have the ad/preview screen removed from your existing links through our whitelisting process. Here’s how it works:
Step 1 – Send us your links first (before upgrading)
Before upgrading your plan, please share the following with us so our authorized team can review them:
- A CSV file of your TinyURLs, along with their destination URLs, or
- A list of the domains used in your destination URLs.
We’ll review this list to confirm whether the links can be whitelisted.
Important: Please send your links and destination URLs to us for review before you upgrade. Our authorized team needs to verify eligibility first.
Step 2 – We review for eligibility
Our team will check whether your links and domains can be whitelisted.
Note: We are unable to whitelist widely used or common domains. Whitelisting is intended for your own links and destinations, not for broadly shared or high-traffic public domains.
Step 3 – Upgrade to a paid plan
Once your links are cleared for whitelisting, upgrading to one of our paid plans lets us remove the ad/preview screen. There are no extra charges for whitelisting on a paid plan, unless the number of links is unusually large.
Quick Summary
| Step | What to Do |
|---|---|
| 1 | Send us a CSV of your TinyURLs + destination URLs (or a list of destination domains) before upgrading |
| 2 | Our authorized team reviews them for whitelisting eligibility |
| 3 | Upgrade to a paid plan – whitelisting is free unless the link count is unusually large |
Key things to remember:
- Widely used or common domains cannot be whitelisted.
- Old-API links cannot be linked to a registered account, edited, or deleted.
- Migrate to the official API to prevent this in the future.
