ShareCut Chrome Extension

What the extension actually does

The ShareCut extension turns the page you are looking at into a short link without leaving it. You click the toolbar icon, the address of the current tab is already there, and one more click gives you a short URL and, if you want it, a QR code for the same destination.

That is the whole point of it: the copy-paste round trip disappears. There is no separate tab to open, nothing to select in the address bar, and no risk of shortening the wrong URL because you copied it half a page ago.

• Grabs the current tab address automatically — nothing to paste
• Short link and QR code for the same destination, in one popup
• Every destination is screened against Google Safe Browsing for malware and phishing
• Links appear in your ShareCut account with their click counts, exactly as if you had made them on the site

Permissions: what it asks for and why

A browser extension is code running inside your browser, and the honest answer to "what can it see" is the only thing worth reading before you install one.

ShareCut asks for the address of the active tab, and it asks for it at the moment you open the popup — not continuously and not in the background. It needs that address for the same reason you would paste it yourself: it is the thing being shortened. It does not read the content of the page, it does not inject anything into the pages you visit, and it does not keep a history of where you have been.

The link keeps working without the extension

Extensions come and go, browsers get reinstalled, and a link you printed on a flyer has to outlive both. A ShareCut link is not stored in the extension: it is a real link on sharecut.site, and the extension is only one of the ways to create one.

Uninstall the extension and every link you made with it keeps resolving, keeps counting clicks and keeps working behind the QR code you already printed. If the link is on your account you can also change where it points at any time from the Link Studio, which is the part that matters once something is on paper.

Extension or the web version?

The extension is faster when you are already on the page you want to share — reading an article, looking at a product, sitting on a booking form. The web version is better when the link is not in front of you: when you are pasting from a document, shortening several links in a row, or you want the QR code full size and print-ready.

They produce the same links. Use whichever is closer to hand, and there is no need to choose once and for all.

• Already on the page: the extension, two clicks, no copy-paste
• Link in a spreadsheet or an email: the web shortener
• A code that has to be printed: the QR generator, which exports at print size
• Several destinations behind one address: a link-in-bio page instead of a short link

If the icon is not there after installing

Almost every "it did not install" report is the same thing: Chrome hides new extensions behind the puzzle-piece icon to the right of the address bar. Click it, find ShareCut, click the pin. The icon then stays in the toolbar.

If the popup opens but the address field is empty, you are most likely on a page Chrome does not expose to extensions at all — the Web Store itself, chrome:// settings pages, or a new tab. Open any ordinary page and it fills in again.

Installing it, step by step

1. 1Open the Chrome Web Store listingGo to the ShareCut - URL Shortener listing, or search the Chrome Web Store for "ShareCut". Works in Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera and any other Chromium browser.
2. 2Click Add to Chrome, then Add extensionChrome shows you the permissions before installing. ShareCut asks only for the address of the tab you are on, and only when you open the popup.
3. 3Pin ShareCut to the toolbarClick the puzzle-piece icon on the right of the address bar and click the pin next to ShareCut. Without pinning, the icon stays hidden in that menu and most people conclude the install failed.
4. 4Open the popup on any pageThe address of the current tab is already filled in. Nothing to copy, no second tab.
5. 5Shorten, and take the QR code if you need itClick Shorten URL for the short link, or flip the QR toggle to get a scannable code for the same destination. Copy either one with a single click.

Frequently asked questions