TinyURL for Firefox shrinks the current page — or a URL you've already copied — using tinyurl.com or is.gd, and puts the result straight on your clipboard.
Because "hey, check out this article" should not require pasting 4,000 characters of tracking parameters and a session token.
Add to FirefoxFree on Firefox Add-ons (AMO).
Modern URLs are a mess — campaign tags, tracking IDs, and paths so long they wrap three times in a text message. TinyURL fixes that, but the website version means: open a new tab, go to the site, paste, click, copy the result, come back. That's a lot of steps to make something shorter.
This add-on collapses all of that into one click on the toolbar button. The shortened link lands on your clipboard, ready to paste. It even shortens a URL you've already copied, so you don't have to visit the page first.
Hit the TinyURL button, or right-click a page/link.
TinyURL or is.gd shortens it — your choice.
The tiny link is already on your clipboard.
Open the add-on's preferences (about:addons → TinyURL → Preferences). Settings save instantly and live only on your machine.
Choose your shortener: TinyURL or is.gd. Two great tastes — pick whichever you trust or prefer the look of.
Paste a token from your TinyURL.com account (Settings → API) and TinyURLs are created through your account — showing up in your dashboard with click analytics. Leave it blank to use the free, anonymous service. Applies to the TinyURL service only (is.gd doesn't use it). Use a token with only the "Create TinyURL" permission. If the key is set but rejected, the add-on tells you rather than silently falling back.
Occasionally the "short" link is actually longer than the original. With this on, the add-on copies whichever is genuinely shorter — no more short links that aren't.
Pops a small confirmation on the page when a link is copied. Off by default, in which case the result is quietly logged to the console.
Adds the "Create a TinyURL" action to the right-click menu on tabs, pages, and links — shorten without leaving what you're doing.
Adds the "Send to TinyURL.com" action to the right-click menu (tab, page, link), opening the URL on TinyURL's site for custom aliases and more.
Appends the service's preview character (+ for TinyURL, - for is.gd) so recipients see a preview page before the real destination. Great for "trust me, it's genuinely not a rickroll." (Or, honestly, for the rickrolls.)
There's also a "Create a TinyURL (from Clipboard)" menu item on the toolbar button — shorten a URL you've already copied, no navigation required.
Your API key is stored locally in the add-on's storage as plain text, and applies only to the TinyURL service. If you use Firefox Sync it may sync to your other devices. Use a restricted "Create TinyURL"-only token.
Preview Links change the link you copy — the trailing + / - is intentional and sends recipients to a preview page first, not straight to the destination.
On-page notifications can't appear on restricted pages — about: pages and addons.mozilla.org — because there's no ordinary web page there to draw on. The result is logged to the console instead.
Transparency matters, so here is the complete list of what this add-on requests and the specific reason for each. No analytics, no ad networks, no data sent anywhere except the shortening service you chose.
| Permission | Why it's needed |
|---|---|
| activeTab | Read the URL of the tab you're on when you invoke the add-on. No always-on access to your browsing. |
| tabs | Read a tab's URL for the right-click page/link actions, and open a new tab for "Send to TinyURL.com". |
| clipboardRead | Powers "Create a TinyURL (from Clipboard)" by reading the URL you've already copied. |
| clipboardWrite | Copy the finished short link to your clipboard so it's ready to paste. |
| storage | Remember your settings (service choice, API key, and toggles) on your own machine. |
| contextMenus | Add the "Create a TinyURL" and "Send to TinyURL.com" entries to the toolbar/right-click menu. |
| Host | Why it's needed |
|---|---|
| tinyurl.com | Call TinyURL's free, anonymous shortening endpoint. |
| api.tinyurl.com | Call TinyURL's authenticated API — used only when you supply an API key. |
| is.gd | Call the is.gd shortening endpoint — used only when you pick is.gd as your service. |
Install it from Firefox Add-ons (AMO) — free, and one click.
Prefer to load it temporarily? Download the firefox/ folder, open about:debugging → This Firefox → Load Temporary Add-on, and select the manifest.json.
Found a bug or want a new feature? I read everything — feature requests especially welcome.
Drop me a line and I'll get back to you.