Migrate from Bitly
Free to startBring your existing Bitly links into awsys.co in three steps. Your Bitly account stays untouched — we only read.
1 — Generate a Generic Access Token in Bitly
- Log in to app.bitly.com.
- Go to Settings → API → Generic Access Token.
- Enter your Bitly password and click Generate Token.
- Copy the token. It looks like
0123456789abcdef…and is 32–64 hex characters long.
Security note: Treat your Generic Access Token like a password. It has full read/write access to your Bitly account. awsys.co uses it once to start your import: the token is attached to the import job for a few milliseconds, deleted by the worker before the first Bitly call, and is never logged, exported or shown again. After the import finishes, regenerate the token in Bitly (Settings → API) so the one you pasted stops working.
2 — Start the import on awsys.co
- Go to Migrate in your dashboard nav (once signed in).
- Choose Bitly.
- Paste the access token from step 1.
- Click Preview my links — we'll fetch a summary first so you can confirm.
- Review the count and click Start import.
3 — Use your redirect map
When the import completes (usually within a minute for small accounts), download the redirect-map.csv. Each row maps a Bitly short URL to its new awsys.co equivalent:
source_short_url,destination_short_url,long_url https://bit.ly/abc,https://awsys.co/xyz,https://example.com/...
Use this map to update references in your CMS, marketing emails, or printed materials.
What gets imported
- Active bitlinks (long URL, title, tags, created_at)
- Lifetime click count from Bitly is recorded on each imported link as
source.bitlyLifetimeClicks— for free-tier Bitly accounts this field isnullbecause Bitly restricts the click-summary endpoint to paid plans. - Note: archived bitlinks are excluded by Bitly's API default.
- Bitly's custom-branded domains are NOT auto-recreated — you'll see them recorded in the import notes; set up custom domains separately on awsys.co.
AgentLink — agent traffic classification
Every click on your imported short links is automatically classified as agent or human. No code change required — detection runs server-side using User-Agent patterns, MCP headers, and request heuristics.
The analytics dashboard for agent traffic is included on Pro and Builder plans. Free accounts still get the classification stored on every click; upgrade at any time to view the breakdown.
Trial, plans, and what happens when the trial ends
Creating an account and shortening links on awsys.co is always free — no credit card required. Every new account also starts with a 14-day Pro trial, and the automated Bitly import (steps 1–3 above) is included in it — you can migrate on day one.
- During the trial — the import runs exactly as it does on a paid plan.
- If the trial ends without a subscription — your account is locked. Your imported short links keep redirecting, so nothing you have already shared breaks, but you can no longer see or manage them in the dashboard, download the redirect map, run another import, or use the API until you subscribe. Thirty days after the lock, premium add-ons — folders, saved views, webhooks, routing rules and social previews — are deleted; the links themselves are not.
- To keep your imported links — subscribe to any paid plan (Starter, Pro, Builder or Enterprise) before the trial ends, or at any point while the account is locked. Access is restored immediately, with your links and their click history intact. Tip: download the redirect map before the trial ends so you have it either way.
- Free plan (no active trial) — the automated import is not available. You can still switch by re-creating your most important links by hand, or upgrade to run the import.
- One concurrent import per user.
- The import checks your plan's link limit once, when the job starts; if the account is already at its limit, the job fails and nothing is fetched.
- Import job + downloadable redirect map are retained for 90 days.
Troubleshooting
- "Bitly Generic Access Token must be hex" — you may have copied a Bitly OAuth token. Use the Generic Access Token at the link above.
- The job stays "fetching" for a long time — large accounts take longer because of Bitly's per-minute rate limits. We back off and retry; no action needed.
- Status is "partial" — most links imported but some failed. Open the import detail to see which.
- I need to cancel — click Cancel import on the progress page. Links already created stay; the rest are skipped.
- "Trial expired" / the dashboard asks me to subscribe — your 14-day trial ended without a subscription, so the account is locked (see above). Your imported links kept redirecting the whole time; subscribe to any paid plan to get dashboard and API access back.