Share links and short IDs

Every EveryPage file has a shareable link, but that link can take three different forms depending on your settings and plan. Understanding the differences between them helps you choose the right form for each use case.

The three identifier forms

When you upload a file to EveryPage, the system mints two identifiers for it — a UUID and a short ID. The third form, the vanity slug, is optional and set by you. All three shapes are disjoint by construction:

The uppercase requirement in short IDs is by design—it makes them distinguishable from vanity slugs (which are always lowercase) at a glance, so EveryPage's resolver never has to guess which identifier type you handed it.

Which link form do you get?

When you upload a file, the EveryPage API returns three pieces of information: the uuid, the shortId, and a ready-built shareUrl. You do not have to construct the URL yourself. For newly uploaded files, the share link uses the short ID form, because the file has no vanity slug yet.

If you set a vanity slug on a Pro account (via the file settings), the file's advertised share link switches to the slug form—on the condition that your account has a verified custom domain. Slugs do not resolve on the canonical everypage.co domain; they work only on a custom domain you own and have verified.

Human-facing vs. durable links

The share URL preference order is:

1. Vanity slug (if set, owner is Pro, and the link is on the owner's custom domain)
2. Short ID
3. UUID (legacy fallback for files created before short IDs existed)

This order applies to any link you share publicly or send to a recipient. However, frozen artifacts—printed QR codes, embed snippets, and the iframe URL returned by oEmbed—always use the durable short-ID form (or UUID), never the slug.

Why? A vanity slug can be renamed at any time. A printed QR code cannot. If a recipient scans a QR code only months later, the slug might have changed hands or been repurposed, and the link would break. The short ID remains stable for the life of the file, so frozen artifacts use it to guarantee durability. When you generate a QR code or embed snippet for a file, EveryPage automatically selects the durable form.

Session state and identifiers

Session gate flags—password verification, email capture, anonymous upload ownership—are keyed off your file's canonical UUID, never off whichever identifier appeared in the URL. Stored file paths and database writes key off the UUID too. This means a viewer who unlocked a file via one form (e.g., the slug) stays unlocked when accessing it via another form (e.g., the short ID). The URL identifier is only a routing mechanism; the underlying state is independent of how the visitor arrived.

Rate limiting

Vanity slugs are short and guessable, so public file access is rate limited to 60 requests per minute per visitor IP address. This limit applies to the share URL itself, download requests, QR code requests, embed loads, and oEmbed. Short IDs are 12 random base62 characters and are not practically guessable.

Storage and custom domains

Vanity slugs are stored in your file's settings and, on the Pro plan, can be changed at any time via the file configuration panel. Changing to a different slug releases the old one for reuse on another of your files. Clearing the slug field returns the file to using the short ID form for human-facing links.

Custom domains are a Pro feature. For details on setting one up and how it affects your share links, see Custom domains. For information on creating custom per-recipient links with their own short IDs, see Link variants.

Next steps

• Vanity slugs — customize your share link
• QR codes — generate QR codes for your files
• Embedding — embed your files on a website
• Custom domains — serve links from your own domain