Bitly API

Name: Bitly API API
Brand: Bitly API
Availability: InStock

★ Only Publicly Available OpenAPI DocumentMarketingMarketing Automationbearer45 EndpointsREST

For Agents

Shorten URLs, generate QR codes, and pull per-link click analytics on Bitly's v4 API. 45 endpoints, Bearer token authentication.

Quickstart

Get started with Bitly API in minutes using your preferred integration method.

# Add to your MCP client config (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf)
{
  "jentic": {
    "url": "https://api.jentic.com/mcp",
    "auth": "oauth"
  }
}

# Then ask your agent:
"shorten a url with tracking"

# → Jentic returns the GET /events tool with parameter schema, agent executes.

Capabilities

What an agent can do with Bitly API API.

Shorten a long URL to a Bitlink via POST /v4/shorten

Expand an existing Bitlink back to its long URL via POST /v4/expand

Read total clicks and click summary for a Bitlink via GET /v4/bitlinks/{bitlink}/clicks and /clicks/summary

Break down clicks by country, city, device, or referrer for a single Bitlink

GET STARTED

Start building with Bitly API API

Explore with Jentic

View OpenAPI Document

Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI document for Bitly API, keeping it validated and agent-ready.

Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI specification for Bitly API, keeping it validated and agent-ready. Bitly is the long-running link management platform that shortens URLs, generates QR codes, and reports on click-level analytics. The v4 REST API covers Bitlinks (shorten and expand), groups and organizations (account hierarchy), branded short domains, campaigns, custom Bitlinks, and per-Bitlink analytics broken down by country, city, device, and referrer. Authentication is a Bearer token tied to a Bitly group.

Use Cases

Patterns agents use Bitly API API for, with concrete tasks.

★ Trackable short links for marketing campaigns

Marketing teams shorten campaign destination URLs through /v4/shorten so each channel gets a distinct Bitlink with its own click count. The same call can attach the Bitlink to a campaign and a branded short domain. Per-Bitlink analytics endpoints then split traffic by country, city, device, and referrer, giving the team the attribution detail they need without standing up their own tracking pipeline.

POST /v4/shorten with the campaign destination URL and the campaign group, then read /v4/bitlinks/{bitlink}/clicks/summary after 24 hours

QR codes for offline-to-online journeys

Brands generate QR codes from short links so that a printed asset (a poster, a receipt, a product label) becomes a measurable channel. Bitly's QR code endpoints return scannable images bound to a Bitlink, and the same Bitlink's analytics endpoints capture every scan. The pairing turns offline placements into measurable traffic without a separate QR vendor.

Create a Bitlink for the destination URL, generate its QR code, and return the image URL plus the Bitlink id

Click analytics ingestion for dashboards

Analytics teams pull per-Bitlink click data into a warehouse so they can join it with downstream conversion events. The /v4/bitlinks/{bitlink}/clicks, /v4/bitlinks/{bitlink}/clicks/summary, /countries, /cities, /devices, and /referrers endpoints provide the raw numbers, and a daily job paged by Bitlink covers thousands of links within typical rate limits. The data lands in the same format as the Bitly UI dashboards.

For each Bitlink in the campaign group, pull /clicks/summary and /countries for the last 30 days and write to the analytics warehouse

Agent integration via Jentic for short-link generation

An AI agent that needs to produce a trackable short link calls Jentic with the intent 'shorten a url with tracking'. Jentic returns the Bitly /v4/shorten operation with its input schema, and injects the Bearer token at execution. The agent never sees the raw token, so a chat session can hand a Bitlink back to the user without exposing the credential.

Search Jentic for 'shorten a url with tracking', load the /v4/shorten schema, and execute with the user's long URL and group_guid

Key Endpoints

45 endpoints — jentic publishes the only available openapi specification for bitly api, keeping it validated and agent-ready.

METHOD

PATH

DESCRIPTION

POST

/v4/shorten

Shorten a long URL into a Bitlink

POST

/v4/expand

Expand a Bitlink back to its long URL

GET

/v4/bitlinks/{bitlink}

Retrieve a Bitlink and its metadata

GET

/v4/bitlinks/{bitlink}/clicks

Read click data points for a Bitlink

GET

/v4/bitlinks/{bitlink}/clicks/summary

Read the aggregate click count for a Bitlink over a window

GET

/v4/bitlinks/{bitlink}/countries

Break clicks down by country

GET

/v4/bitlinks/{bitlink}/devices

Break clicks down by device type

GET

/v4/bitlinks/{bitlink}/referrers

Break clicks down by referring domain

POST

/v4/shorten

Shorten a long URL into a Bitlink

POST

/v4/expand

Expand a Bitlink back to its long URL

GET

/v4/bitlinks/{bitlink}

Retrieve a Bitlink and its metadata

GET

/v4/bitlinks/{bitlink}/clicks

Read click data points for a Bitlink

GET

/v4/bitlinks/{bitlink}/clicks/summary

Read the aggregate click count for a Bitlink over a window

Why though Jentic?

Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.

Credential isolation

Bitly Bearer tokens are stored encrypted in the Jentic vault. Jentic builds the Authorization header at execution, so agent prompts and logs never contain the raw token.

Intent-based discovery

Agents search by intent (e.g. 'shorten a url with tracking' or 'get bitly click analytics') and Jentic returns the matching v4 operation with its input and response schema.

Time to first call

Direct Bitly integration: half a day for OAuth setup, group selection, and rate-limit handling. Through Jentic: under 30 minutes — search, load schema, execute.

Related APIs

Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.

Alternative

TinyURL API

Lightweight URL shortener with simpler analytics than Bitly.

Choose TinyURL when the agent only needs short links and does not require Bitly's branded domains or campaign hierarchy.

Alternative

Rebrandly

Branded link management with strong custom-domain support.

Choose Rebrandly when the agent's primary requirement is custom domains and link routing rules.

Alternative

Short.io

Custom-domain short links and click analytics.

Choose Short.io when the agent needs link cloaking and country-specific redirects beyond Bitly's defaults.

FAQs

Specific to using Bitly API API through Jentic.

Why is there no official OpenAPI spec for Bitly API?

Bitly does not publish an OpenAPI specification. Jentic generates and maintains this spec so that AI agents and developers can call Bitly API via structured tooling. It is validated against the live API and kept up to date. Get started at https://app.jentic.com/sign-up.

What authentication does the Bitly API use?

Bitly v4 uses HTTP Bearer tokens. Each call sets Authorization: Bearer {token} on the request. Tokens are scoped to a group within an organization. Through Jentic the token is held in the vault and injected at execution time, so agents never hold the credential.

Can I shorten a URL with the Bitly API?

Yes. POST /v4/shorten accepts a long_url and an optional group_guid in the body and returns a Bitlink. Pass a domain field to mint the Bitlink on a branded short domain instead of bit.ly.

What are the rate limits for the Bitly API?

Bitly enforces per-token request limits that vary by plan tier. Free and lower-tier plans hit the 429 Too Many Requests response well before higher tiers do. Inspect the X-RateLimit headers on each response to track remaining quota.

How do I get click analytics for a Bitlink through Jentic?

Run pip install jentic, search Jentic for 'get bitly click analytics', load the /v4/bitlinks/{bitlink}/clicks/summary operation, and execute with the Bitlink id. Jentic injects the Bearer token automatically.

Can I generate a QR code from a Bitlink?

Yes. The QR Codes resource returns scannable QR images bound to a Bitlink, and clicks on the resulting QR code count toward the same Bitlink's analytics — so a QR poster shows up in the Bitlink's /clicks/summary response.