Free YouTube link tracker.
See which video drove every click.
YouTube Studio shows you views and subscribers — but zero data on description link clicks, the #1 monetization channel for creators. Mint a per-video short URL, paste it into the description, end-screen, or pinned comment, and see clicks live with geo, device, and UTM data. Free tier covers 10 links and 2,500 clicks/mo.
Free forever · no credit card · UTM-safe · custom short domains on PRO
What we've tracked so far
Real numbers from 80,412 lifetime clicks
80,412
lifetime tracked clicks
1,499
users on the platform
96
countries detected
5.44%
our own Google CTR
How it works
Three steps. About 60 seconds from signup to first tracked YouTube click.
1. Paste your destination URL
Your affiliate link, sponsor page, course, Shopify store, Patreon — anything with a URL. Keep your UTM tags on it; they ride through untouched.
2. Mint a per-video short URL
Use a descriptive slug like gtlk.link/vid-may-coffee. On PRO, your own short domain like go.yourchannel.com.
3. Paste into the description
Drop the short URL into the video description, pinned comment, or an end-screen card. Clicks appear live with full geo, device, and referrer breakdown.
Every YouTube placement, covered
One link works everywhere. Per-placement slugs unlock data YouTube Studio never shows you.
Description links
The single most valuable channel for creators — and the one YouTube Studio is completely silent on. Mint one short URL per video and finally see which videos actually drive clicks.
Pinned comments
On mobile, the pinned comment is one tap under the video and often out-clicks the description. Mint a separate slug per pinned comment and compare placement performance head-to-head.
End-screens & cards
End-screen elements that link to an external URL (associated website / approved domain) route through your short URL and count normally. Per-card slugs surface which screen position actually converts.
YouTube Shorts
Shorts descriptions support links — they just get clicked at about 1/10th the rate of long-form. Per-format slugs (Shorts vs long) make the rate gap visible so you can price sponsor placements accordingly.
Sponsor reporting
Sponsors want hard numbers, not "views × estimated CTR". A unique slug per video per sponsor closes the attribution gap and ships them a public analytics URL they can verify themselves.
Affiliate links
Amazon, Impact, ShareASale, Skimlinks — any affiliate destination works. UTMs and affiliate tags ride through the 302 untouched, so commissions track correctly while you also get your own click data.
Track Link vs YouTube Studio vs VidIQ/TubeBuddy vs Bitly
Honest comparison. Each tool was built for a different job.
| Feature | Track Link | YT Studio | VidIQ / TubeBuddy | Bitly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Per-link clicks on description links | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Per-video / per-placement attribution | Yes (one slug each) | Views only | Views & SEO only | Manual |
| Geo / device / browser per click | Yes | Country aggregate | No | Paid |
| UTM forwarding through redirect | Yes | — | — | Yes |
| Sponsor-shareable analytics URL | Yes (public) | No | No | Enterprise only |
| Custom short domain | PRO ($9.99/mo) | No | No | $8/mo and up |
| Free tier | 10 links, 2.5k clicks | Free | Limited free | 5 links, 50/mo |
| Built for link tracking | Yes | No (creator analytics) | No (SEO / tags) | Yes |
Honest limits when tracking YouTube
- Shorts click rates are 5-10x lower than long-form for the same view count. That's a YouTube format reality, not a tracking issue. Use per-format slugs so you can see the gap and price sponsor placements accordingly instead of guessing.
- End-screen external links require an approved associated domain in YouTube Studio before YouTube will let you link out from a card. Once approved, Track Link short URLs (or your custom short domain) route normally and are counted like any other click.
- YouTube's in-app browser on iOS / Android opens links inside the YouTube app instead of Safari / Chrome. We detect and classify it separately, but cookies and third-party analytics behave differently inside IAB — don't expect perfect parity with desktop sessions.
- Everything else: outbound clicks from YouTube carry
youtube.comas referrer (unlike LinkedIn / Instagram which strip it), so we capture the source cleanly. Full geo, device, browser, OS, and unique-visitor fingerprinting on real human clicks. UTM tags forward cleanly through the 302 redirect.
FAQ
Everything you might wonder about tracking YouTube links.
Why doesn't YouTube Studio show me description link clicks?
YouTube Studio reports views, watch time, subscribers gained, and clicks on cards and end-screen elements — but it has never exposed click counts on plain hyperlinks in the description box. That's the single most valuable monetization channel for most creators (affiliate links, sponsor URLs, course pages, merch), and it's a complete blind spot in YouTube's own analytics. Track Link fills that gap: mint a short URL per video, paste it into the description, and every click is recorded with geo, device, OS, browser, and referrer — including the all-important `youtube.com` referrer header so you can prove the click came from YouTube.
Can I see which specific video drove a sponsor's link clicks?
Yes — that's exactly what per-video slugs are designed for. Mint a unique slug like `gtlk.link/vid-may-2026-cast-iron` for one specific video's sponsor placement. Every click on that URL is attributed to that video and that sponsor, full stop. When the sponsor asks for proof of performance, you send them the public analytics URL (`gettrack.link/p/<slug>/stats`) and they see hard numbers: 247 clicks, 68% US, 41% mobile, peaked the first 48 hours after upload. No more "view count times estimated CTR" hand-waving — actual click attribution, per video, per sponsor.
Does YouTube's preview crawler create fake clicks?
Far less than Facebook or LinkedIn. YouTube does not aggressively pre-crawl every link in a description for preview cards the way social platforms do — descriptions stay as plain text until a user clicks. You may see occasional bot hits from generic preview services if your video is embedded or shared on other platforms (Discord, Slack, X), but the link-in-description on YouTube itself is mostly free of crawler noise. Any bots that do hit are tagged by user agent on the click detail page and excluded from unique-click counts by default.
Can I use this for affiliate disclosure compliance?
Track Link short URLs don't change your disclosure obligations — if you have an affiliate or sponsorship relationship, you still need to disclose it in the video and the description per FTC guidelines (and YouTube's paid promotion checkbox). What Track Link does help with is the audit trail: you have a timestamped record of which video pointed to which destination, with click counts. If a sponsor or platform later asks for proof of placement and performance, you have it. We don't cloak destinations or mask the final URL — clicking a Track Link redirects (302) to the real destination, which is what reviewers and viewers see.
What about YouTube Shorts links?
Shorts support links in the description, and Track Link short URLs work there normally — clicks are recorded the same way as long-form. The honest caveat: Shorts viewers click description links at roughly 1/10th the rate of long-form viewers for similar view counts. The format is built for fast scrolling, not deep-dives into the description. If you run both formats, mint separate slugs per format (e.g. `vid-long-coffee` vs `vid-short-coffee`) so the rate difference surfaces in your dashboard. That data alone is worth the few seconds of setup — it'll change how you allocate sponsor placements.
Will viewers see the gtlk.link domain in the description? Can I use a custom domain?
On the free tier, your short URLs use the `gtlk.link` domain — viewers see something like `gtlk.link/coffee-review` in your description. It's clean and short, but it's not branded. On PRO ($9.99/mo) you can point a custom domain like `go.yourchannel.com` at Track Link via Cloudflare custom hostnames; your description links then read as `go.yourchannel.com/coffee-review`. Custom-domain short URLs also tend to perform better on click-through rate, especially with audiences who are wary of generic shorteners.
Can I track end-screen and pinned-comment links separately?
Yes — and you should. The trick is to mint a unique slug per placement. Use one short URL in the description, a different slug in the pinned comment, and a third for the end-screen (when you link to an external URL from a card). Each placement is recorded independently in the dashboard, so you can see exactly where your viewers prefer to click. In practice, pinned-comment links often outperform description links on mobile because the comment is one tap below the video — data most creators never see because YouTube Studio aggregates everything.
Is this against YouTube's Terms of Service?
No. Track Link is a standard URL shortener with analytics — the same category as Bitly, TinyURL, and YouTube's own `youtu.be`. YouTube's spam policy targets misleading metadata, click-bait redirects, and links that go somewhere different from what the description promises. As long as your short URL redirects to the destination you'd otherwise link to directly (your store, your sponsor's site, your course page), you're fine. We don't cloak, we don't interstitial, we don't inject anything — we 302 redirect to the destination you set. That's vanilla URL shortening, used by every major creator on the platform.
Stop guessing which YouTube video actually drives clicks
Free tier covers 10 links and 2,500 clicks per month. UTM-safe, bot-filtered, sponsor-shareable. Two minutes from signup to your first tracked YouTube link.