Today we’re launching Blinkhop, a link shortener for people, apps and AI agents. Paste a long URL on blinkhop.com and you get a short link on zou.sh, like https://zou.sh/launch. There is no account to create, no ad before the redirect and no captcha to solve, and it works the same over Tor and VPNs.
Why we built another link shortener
A link shortener should be one of the simplest tools on the web: paste a URL, get a shorter one. Over the years, short links got worse. Many services now ask you to sign up before you can shorten anything. Some show an ad or a countdown page before sending visitors on. Many put a captcha or a bot check in front of the form, which can be a dead end if you browse over Tor or a VPN.
At the same time, a new kind of user arrived. AI assistants now draft emails, posts, docs and reports, and those are full of links. Captchas are designed to keep software out, and sign-up walls assume a person with an inbox, so both stop agents.
We wanted one shortener that works the same for a person on a phone, a developer with a script and an agent making a tool call.
What is live today
Everything below works now, without an account.
The web shortener. Paste a URL into the field on blinkhop.com and it is shortened right away and copied to your clipboard. You can choose a custom ending, open the QR code or start again with the New button.
Short links on zou.sh. Links redirect with HTTP 302. Codes are 5 characters by default and skip look-alike characters such as 0/O and 1/l/I, and lookups ignore letter case, so a link someone types from a poster still works. Shortening the same URL twice returns the same link. Links never expire unless an owner sets an expiry.
Preview before you click. Add + to any zou.sh link, as in https://zou.sh/launch+, to see its destination, creation date and total clicks, with a form to report it.
QR codes. Every link has a print-ready SVG QR code at https://zou.sh/<code>/qr.
Link safety. Every destination is checked at creation against a blocklist of about 390,000 phishing and malware domains, refreshed every night from two open sources: URLhaus (abuse.ch) and the Phishing.Database project. We also refuse links with embedded credentials, private or local addresses, and zou.sh links. Anyone can report a link, and abusive links are disabled.
A REST API with no key to start. One request returns a short link:
curl -d url=https://example.com https://api.blinkhop.com/v1/linksThe API can also shorten up to 100 URLs in one request, expand short links from other services such as bit.ly, tinyurl.com and t.co with a safety verdict, and accept reports. Errors are JSON with explicit codes, rate limits come back in response headers, CORS is open, and an OpenAPI 3.1 spec describes it all.
An MCP server for AI assistants. Add https://mcp.blinkhop.com/mcp to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, VS Code or Windsurf, and your assistant can shorten one link or up to 50 at a time, and check where a zou.sh link goes. It needs no account or key.
Free tools and a status page. A QR code generator, a UTM builder and a link expander are free on the site, and the status page shows live checks of redirects, the API and the MCP server.
The principles behind Blinkhop
No ads. Our business model is paid plans. We don’t show ads, and we don’t sell data.
No captchas. There is no captcha or bot wall in front of the site, the API, the MCP server or the redirects. We handle abuse with rate limits, the blocklist and reports instead.
Tor-friendly. Privacy networks get the same service as everyone else: over Tor or a VPN, everything works as it does on any other connection.
Private by default. Neither the website nor the redirects set cookies, and the site runs no analytics trackers. We count clicks as daily totals by country, referrer domain and device type, and we never store the IP address behind a click. Bots and link previews from apps like Slack, WhatsApp and Discord aren’t counted, so sharing a link in a group chat doesn’t inflate its numbers.
AI-native. Agents are first-class users. The MCP server is remote, so setup is a single URL. The API needs no key to try. And shortening is idempotent: when an agent retries, it gets the same link back instead of a duplicate.
Links that last. A short link that stops working breaks every place it was shared. Ours don’t expire unless their owner decides they should.
What comes next: accounts, in early access
Some features need an account, and accounts are in early access. They will let you edit a link’s destination, set expiry dates and click limits, follow clicks in an analytics dashboard, save UTM presets, upload links in bulk from a CSV file, use branded domains and share team workspaces.
The plans are on the pricing page. Free costs $0 and needs no account. A free account (early access) will add editing, 30-day analytics and an API key with 1,000 links per day. Pro, at $9 per month billed yearly, and Team, at $29 per month billed yearly with 5 seats included, are in early access too. They add branded domains, longer analytics and higher API limits. Enterprise is custom.
We aren’t announcing a date for accounts yet. To hear when they open, join the list in the early access section of the pricing page. We’ll use your email only to contact you about accounts.
Try Blinkhop
- Shorten a link on the home page.
- Make your first API call with the quickstart.
- Connect your assistant to the MCP server.
- Find answers in the help center, or reach us through the contact form.
