Short Links (API)

Create and manage short links with the Pxl API. Automate link generation, customize previews and track clicks to enhance your digital marketing efforts.

Related guide: Creating short links.

The short object

Each short link has a variety of

id: string

Example: pxl.to/mylink

Unique identifier for each short link. The id is a text composite of the domain and route. Prepending https:// to the id will form a URL denoting the location of the short link.

route: string

Example: mylink

The route of the short link.

consent: boolean

Example: true

Specifies whether to request informed consent from visitors before storing cookies.

destination: string

Example: https://www.bbc.co.uk

Destination URL the short link will redirect to.

title: string

Example: My Title

Title text shown in link previews.

description: string

Example: My link description

Description text shown in link previews.

image: string

Example: https://www.example.com/image.png

URL location of the image shown in link previews.

favicon: string

Example: https://www.example.com/favicon.png

URL location of the favicon shown in browser for redirects.

clicks: number

Example: 100

Integer representation of the click count.

createdAt: date

Example: 2024-12-27 08:26:49.219717

Date representation of when the link was created in UTC+0.

updatedAt: date

Example: 2024-12-28 08:26:49.219717

Date representation of when the link was last updated in UTC+0. This attribute considers updates to the click count, and can therefore be used to infer the date and time of the most recent click.

Create a short link

To create a short link, you will make a POST request specifying the defining attributes.

POST https://api.pxl.to/api/v1/short

Parameters

destination: string — required

Example: https://www.bbc.co.uk

Destination URL of the new short link.

domain: string

Example: mydomain.com

The domain or subdomain of the new short link. Custom domains must be added in the dashboard before they can be used. Related guide: Creating custom domains.

route: string

Example: mylink

The route of the new short link.

consent: boolean

Example: false

Specifies whether to request informed consent from visitors before storing cookies. Requires company information on the admin page.

title: string

Example: My Title

Title text shown in link previews.

description: string

Example: My link description

Description text shown in link previews.

image: string

Example: https://www.example.com/image.png

URL location of the image shown in link previews.

favicon: string

Example: https://www.example.com/favicon.png

URL location of the favicon shown in browser for redirects.

Returns

Returns the short object.

Request

An example CURL request:

curl -X POST --compressed "https://api.pxl.to/api/v1/short" \
-H "Accept-Encoding: gzip" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN>" \
-d '{
    "destination": "example.com",
    "title": "Redirect",
    "description": "Descriptive text",
    "image": "https://example.com/image.png",
    "favicon": "https://example.com/favicon.ico"
}'

Response

An example JSON response:

{
  "data": {
    "id": "pxl.to/x8djds",
    "route": "x8djds",
    "destination": "https://example.com",
    "title": "Redirect",
    "description": "Descriptive text",
    "image": "https://example.com/image.png",
    "favicon": "https://example.com/favicon.ico",
    "consent": false,
    "clicks": 0,
    "createdAt": "2022-07-27T15:17:03.525Z",
    "updatedAt": "2022-07-27T15:17:03.525Z"
  }
}

Read a short link

To return a specific short link object, you will make a GET request specifying the URL encoded short id.

GET https://api.pxl.to/api/v1/short/:id

Parameters

No parameters.

Returns

Returns the short object.

Request

An example CURL request:

curl -X GET --compressed "https://api.pxl.to/api/v1/short/pxl.to%2Fx8djds" \
-H "Accept-Encoding: gzip" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN>"

Response

An example JSON response:

{
  "data": {
    "id": "pxl.to/x8djds",
    "route": "x8djds",
    "destination": "https://example.com",
    "title": "Redirect",
    "description": "Descriptive text",
    "image": "https://example.com/image.png",
    "favicon": "https://example.com/favicon.ico",
    "consent": false,
    "clicks": 0,
    "createdAt": "2022-07-27T15:17:03.525Z",
    "updatedAt": "2022-07-27T15:17:03.525Z"
  }
}

Update a short link

To update attributes for a specific short, you will make a PUT request specifying the attributes to update and the URL encoded short id.

PUT https://api.pxl.to/api/v1/short/:id

Parameters

destination: string

Example: https://www.bbc.co.uk

Destination URL of the new short link.

consent: boolean

Example: false

Specifies whether to request informed consent from visitors before storing cookies. Requires company information on the admin page.

title: string

Example: My Title

Title text shown in link previews.

description: string

Example: My link description

Description text shown in link previews.

image: string

Example: https://www.example.com/image.png

URL location of the image shown in link previews.

favicon: string

Example: https://www.example.com/favicon.png

URL location of the favicon shown in browser for redirects.

Returns

Returns the short object.

Request

An example CURL request:

curl -X PUT --compressed "https://api.pxl.to/api/v1/short/pxl.to%2Fx8djds" \
-H "Accept-Encoding: gzip" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN>" \
-d '{
    "destination": "https://google.com"
}'

Response

An example JSON response:

{
  "data": {
    "id": "pxl.to/x8djds",
    "route": "x8djds",
    "destination": "https://google.com",
    "title": "Redirect",
    "description": "Descriptive text",
    "image": "https://example.com/image.png",
    "favicon": "https://example.com/favicon.ico",
    "consent": false,
    "clicks": 0,
    "createdAt": "2022-07-27T15:17:03.525Z",
    "updatedAt": "2022-07-27T15:17:03.525Z"
  }
}

Delete a short link

To delete a specific short link, you will make a DELETE request specifying the URL encoded short id.

DELETE https://api.pxl.to/api/v1/short/:id

Parameters

No parameters.

Returns

Returns the number of records affected.

Request

An example CURL request:

curl -X DELETE --compressed "https://api.pxl.to/api/v1/short/pxl.to%2Fx8djds" \
-H "Accept-Encoding: gzip" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN>"

Response

An example JSON response:

{
  "data": {
    "raw": [],
    "affected": 1
  }
}

List short links

To return all short links associated with your organisation, you will make a GET request.

GET https://api.pxl.to/api/v1/short

Parameters

take: number

Example: 10

The number of records to return, with a minimum value of 1 and a maximum value of 50. Defaults to 50.

skip: number

Example: 0

The number of records to skip, with a minimum value of 0 and a maximum value of 50. Defaults to 0.

Returns

Returns a list of every short object associated with your organisation.

Request

An example CURL request:

curl -X GET --compressed "https://api.pxl.to/api/v1/short?take=2&skip=10" \
-H "Accept-Encoding: gzip" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN>" \

Response

An example JSON response:

{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "pxl.to/x8djds",
      "route": "x8djds",
      "destination": "https://example.com",
      "title": "Redirect",
      "description": "Descriptive text",
      "image": "https://example.com/image.png",
      "favicon": "https://example.com/favicon.ico",
      "consent": false,
      "clicks": 0,
      "createdAt": "2022-07-27T15:17:03.525Z",
      "updatedAt": "2022-07-27T15:17:03.525Z"
    },
    {
      "id": "pxl.to/bing/preview",
      "route": "bing/preview",
      "destination": "https://bing.com/search?q=preview",
      "title": "Redirect",
      "description": "Descriptive text",
      "image": "https://bing.com/image.png",
      "favicon": "https://bing.com/favicon.ico",
      "consent": true,
      "clicks": 32,
      "createdAt": "2022-02-21T12:11:03.545Z",
      "updatedAt": "2022-02-21T12:11:03.545Z"
    }
  ]
}