Bitly has five plans: Free, Core at $10 a month, Growth at $29, Premium at $199, and Enterprise at a quoted price. Those are the prices you get when you pay for a year up front. Pay month by month and Growth becomes $35 and Premium $300. Core cannot be paid monthly at all. Below is what each plan really gives you, where the limits bite, and what the bill comes to over five years.
Prices checked on Bitly’s own pricing page on 23 September 2026, in US dollars, before tax. Bitly changes its plans from time to time, so check theirs before you decide.
Bitly’s plans at a glance
| Plan | Paid yearly | Paid monthly | Short links a month | QR codes a month | Click history kept | Your own domain |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | 5 | 2 | — | No |
| Core | $10/mo ($120/yr) | Not offered | 100 | 5 | 30 days | No |
| Growth | $29/mo ($348/yr) | $35/mo | 500 | 10 | 4 months | Yes, one included |
| Premium | $199/mo ($2,388/yr) | $300/mo | 3,000 | 200 | 1 year | Yes |
| Enterprise | Quoted | Custom | Custom | Custom | Yes | |
Where the limits actually bite
Links are counted per month
Every plan caps how many short links you can make each month: 5 on Free, 100 on Core, 500 on Growth and 3,000 on Premium. Clicks are unlimited, but creating links is not. A team that shortens every link in a newsletter, every product and every social post can reach 100 in the first week.
Your own domain starts at Growth
Branded links, like yourbrand.co/offer instead of bit.ly/3xYz, are not in Free or Core. The cheapest way to put your own name on a link is Growth, at $348 a year. For most businesses that is the plan that matters, and it is the one to price against.
Click data is kept for a limited time
Core keeps 30 days of click and scan data, Growth four months and Premium one year. If you want to compare this year’s campaign with last year’s, only Premium keeps the data long enough, at $2,388 a year. On the cheaper plans, export your numbers regularly.
Changing where a link goes is rationed too
Pointing an existing link or QR code at a new page is limited to 5 a month on Core, 20 on Growth and 110 on Premium. That matters most for printed QR codes: editing them is the whole point, and it is capped.
What Bitly costs over five years
Link shorteners tend to stay for years, because the links end up printed and shared. So it is worth looking at the long-run cost, not just the monthly figure:
| Plan | One year | Five years |
|---|---|---|
| Core (yearly) | $120 | $600 |
| Growth (yearly) | $348 | $1,740 |
| Growth (monthly) | $420 | $2,100 |
| Premium (yearly) | $2,388 | $11,940 |
| Premium (monthly) | $3,600 | $18,000 |
Is Bitly worth it?
Often, yes. If nobody on your team wants to run a server, if you rely on Bitly’s integrations with tools you already use, or if you need a company contractually responsible for uptime, the subscription buys you real things. Bitly also offers features Kortli does not, such as landing pages and mobile deep linking.
It is a poorer fit if all you need is branded short links, QR codes and click counts, and you already have a server or someone who can run one. In that case you pay $348 a year or more, for as long as you use it, for software you could simply own.
The one-payment alternative
We make Kortli, a link shortener you install on your own server. It costs $199 once and comes with the complete source code. You get as many of your own domains as you like, password-protected links, A/B testing across up to four destinations, and styled QR codes with your logo. There are no monthly quotas on links or edits; the only limit is your server.
Add a small server at about $6 a month and five years comes to roughly $559, against $1,740 for Bitly Growth. If you would rather not run it yourself, we can install it for you ($199 + $499, paid once) or host it for you ($199 once, then $79 a month). The full comparison is on our Bitly alternative page, including where Bitly is still the better choice.
Questions people ask about Bitly pricing
Is Bitly free?
There is a free plan, but it allows 5 short links and 2 QR codes a month, and no custom domain. It is enough to try Bitly, not to run a business on.
What is the cheapest Bitly plan with a custom domain?
Growth, at $29 a month billed yearly ($348) or $35 a month billed monthly. Free and Core do not include branded links.
Can I pay for Bitly Core monthly?
No. Core is sold only as a yearly plan, $120 up front.
How much does Bitly cost per year?
$120 for Core, $348 for Growth and $2,388 for Premium when paid yearly. Paid monthly, Growth comes to $420 a year and Premium to $3,600. Enterprise is priced by quote.
Is there a Bitly alternative without a monthly fee?
Yes. Self-hosted shorteners run on your own server. Some are free and open source, such as YOURLS and Shlink. Kortli is built on Shlink, adds password-protected links, A/B testing, QR codes and a one-command install, and costs $199 once.
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