Canal · X (Twitter)
X (Twitter) Links: t.co, and What They Earn
There's no point looking for a shorter link to fit in a post: the platform handles it itself, and the character count doesn't move. What's missing is elsewhere — knowing which of your posts produced a sale.
What X does with your link
Four points, as they read in its official help. What it doesn't say is noted below.
| The question | What the help says |
|---|---|
| What happens to the published URL | “All links (URLs) shared in posts are shortened using our t.co service” |
| What the reader sees | On x.com, “the original URL (or a truncated version of it) will be displayed in your post” |
| How many characters it costs | “Any URL, regardless of its length, will be counted as 23 characters” |
| Can it be turned off | No: “it is not possible to disable the t.co link shortening service” |
| What X checks along the way | Shortened links “are subject to checks”; in front of a potentially unsafe site, “users will be warned before they can continue” |
What the article doesn't say, and what we won't invent: what t.co does with your campaign parameters, and whether the landing page still receives the referrer information. Three neighboring help pages were tried on 12/09 — they no longer exist. We will draw no conclusion from that.
Checked on September 12, 2026 in X help, « How to post a link » — the original page. Platforms change their rules: if what you see no longer matches, the source wins.
The service everything passes through
t.co
Every link passes through it. None of them tell you what it brought in.
X shortens every published URL and checks it along the way. It's a security service and a character counter — not a sales ledger, and its own help doesn't claim otherwise.
23
characters counted, whatever the URL length
0
setting to disable it
1
link of yours, whose destination you can change
What stays in your hands
The displayed address, and the record
Since length makes no difference to the character count, a short link is no longer justified by the space it saves. It is justified by the two things t.co doesn't do: show your name in the post, and tell you what happened after the click.
That's where your domain matters: link.yourbrand.com/offer is readable, memorable, and retyped. And its destination can be changed without touching the post — useful when the same post keeps circulating weeks after publication. The same link becomes a QR code when it moves off the screen.
The same logic applies on LinkedIn and YouTube, each with its own constraints — here, an imposed shortener.
Channel: X (Twitter)
When you create the link, you choose its channel — “where you're going to publish it.” X (Twitter) becomes a line in the overview, with its clicks, leads, and sales; and each post, a line under it, if you gave it its own link.
Three objections
“X already shortens my links — why bother with mine?”
“X warns against third-party shorteners.”
“I already have my campaign parameters.”
Frequently asked questions
Can you stop X from shortening a link?
No. X's help, recorded September 12, 2026, writes that “it is not possible to disable the t.co link shortening service.” No link tool changes that.
How many characters does a link take in a post?
Twenty-three, according to the same page: “any URL, regardless of its length, will be counted as 23 characters.” A ten-character link and a two-hundred-character link cost the same space.
So a short link is pointless on X?
For saving space, yes. It's useful for what's displayed — the help notes that the original URL, or a truncated version, appears in the post — and for what it measures. Your name is what's read, and your report is what fills up.
Do my campaign parameters survive t.co?
We found no X help page that says so, and we won't decide for it. What we can verify: a Subtraq link carries parameters to the landing URL, and ties the click to what follows.
Do I need a different link per post?
Yes, if you want to know which post sold. One link tells you what X brings in; one link per post tells you which one to repeat.
Is it X or Twitter?
Both are still used, and Subtraq's catalog writes “X (Twitter)” for that reason: it's the name people recognize in a selector. The channel itself doesn't depend on the brand name.
Your next post, measured.
Create the link, write the post, paste it in. X will run it through t.co like the rest — and this time, you'll know what it brought in.
Create a free accountThe per-channel attribution model is explained on the attribution page.