Expand a t.co link

Paste any t.co link to see where it really goes. Expanded on our server, so nothing from the destination reaches your browser.

A real t.co link, traced

Short links are easier to understand as output than as description. This is an actual t.co link taken from a public post on X and expanded through this tool on 23 August 2026:

301 https://t.co/hstALxzsNn
301 → https://twitter.com/jakezward/status/2090060494858014873/photo/1
307 → https://x.com/jakezward/status/2090060494858014873/photo/1
200 → https://x.com/jakezward/status/2090060494858014873

Three hops, not one. t.co answers with a 301 to the destination it stored, and because that destination was recorded before the rebrand, it points at twitter.com, which then redirects to x.com with a 307 before the page finally answers 200.

That is worth knowing for two reasons. Anyone auditing links on their own site will find old t.co addresses now taking three hops instead of one, which is slower for visitors and exactly the kind of chain worth collapsing. And anyone checking where a link goes needs the final URL rather than the first redirect target, because the first one can be a domain the destination no longer uses.

What t.co hides, and why

X applies t.co to every link on the platform. That is not a shortening service anyone opted into. It is applied to posts, replies, profile bios and direct messages alike. X's stated reasons are click measurement and screening destinations against known-malicious sites.

The side effect is that the destination is invisible until you commit. X shows a shortened display string next to the link, but that string is decoration: the actual href is the t.co address. It is a reasonable default for a platform and a bad one for anyone deciding whether a link is worth clicking, which is the gap this page fills.

Frequently asked questions

What is a t.co link?
t.co is X's (formerly Twitter's) automatic link wrapper. Every URL posted to the platform is rewritten to a t.co address (in posts, replies, bios and direct messages) whether or not the author wanted a short link. X uses it to measure clicks and to screen destinations against its own list of known-malicious sites, which is why it is applied to everything rather than offered as a feature.

Why can I not just read the link text on X?
Because the text shown is a display string, not the link. X renders a truncated version of the destination for readability, but the actual href on that element is the t.co address. The two can differ, and the display text is the part you cannot rely on, so if you want to know where a post leads before clicking, you have to expand the t.co address itself.

Do t.co links expire?
They are not published with an expiry, and long-standing t.co links continue to resolve. What does change is the destination: if the page at the far end moves or is deleted, the t.co link still resolves but lands on a redirect or an error. Expanding it shows you which of those you are dealing with, because the final status is reported separately from the t.co hop.

Is it safe to expand a t.co link from someone I do not trust?
Expanding it here is. The chain is followed on our server, so the destination never runs JavaScript on your machine, sets no cookies in your browser, and sees our server rather than your IP address. You get the final URL without having visited it. Seeing a destination is still not the same as vetting it, though. A familiar-looking domain can host anything.