After originally planning to have all goo.gl URLs stop working later this month, Google will now “preserve actively used links.”
In July of 2024, Google said all existing goo.gl links would stop working. That URL shortener stopped creating new links in March of 2019. The original plan was to have those links on August 25, 2025 return a 404 response.
Now, “actively used” goo.gl links will continue to work. Google says it heard the feedback: “We understand these links are embedded in countless documents, videos, posts and more, and we appreciate the input received.”
However, Google still plans to “deactivate” URLs that have “no activity” later this month. Last year, Google said “more than 99% of [goo.gl links] had no activity in the last month.”
You can check whether that’s the case for one of your URLs by visiting to see if a “This link will no longer work in the near future” message appears (as seen in our cover image above). That warning started appearing and factoring traffic from late 2024.
Otherwise, Google says “all other goo.gl links will be preserved and will continue to function as normal.” If there’s no redirect to that warning, it will continue to work, though Google does not specify how long it will last. It does seem like Google will now be keeping those goo.gl URLs active for the foreseeable future.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
