"Turn this link off" has four different tools behind it, and they differ in one question: why is it stopping? Pick by the answer, not by habit.
Pause — "stop it right now, it's coming back"
Paused links stop redirecting instantly, and the URL plus its full click history stay exactly as they are. Unpause and it's business as usual. Visitors who hit a paused link get the domain's fallback destination if one is set, so a paused campaign link can politely land on your homepage instead of a dead end. Use for: anything temporary or undecided — a paused product page, a link under review, seasonal downtime.
Schedule — "it stops at a time I already know"
A schedule window ends a link automatically at a set moment — useful when the stop is predictable: a sale ending Friday, a launch window closing. Same visitor behavior as paused (fallback applies), and the end time can be edited later if the promotion gets extended.
Click limit — "it stops after a number"
A click limit counts instead of watching the clock: the link serves exactly N visitors, then shows a plain "this link has reached its click limit" page. Different visitor experience from pause — deliberate, not apologetic — which is usually what you want for finite offers and gated files. Raising the limit brings it straight back.
Delete — "this link should never work again"
Deleting removes the link and its click history, permanently. There's no undo and no tombstone — anyone who kept the old URL gets a 404 unless the domain has a fallback URL to catch them. Use for: genuinely dead links. If there's any chance you'll want the URL again later, pause instead — deleting to "clean up" is the one stop on this list you can't take back.
The one-line cheat sheet
- Coming back soon? Pause.
- Ending at a known time? Schedule.
- Ending at a known count? Click limit.
- Dead forever? Delete — and set a fallback first.