Short Links
VRChat has a number of ways to shorten URLs for users, instances, groups, and calendar events. These redirect people to the `https://vrchat.com/home/...` pages on the website.
VRChat has several ways users can share links to various types of content.
Canonically, the URLs that many people will use are those they see in their browser, starting with https://vrchat.com/home/....
However, there are other URLs for users, groups, worlds, instances, and calendar events that offer brevity.
HTTP Redirects
Upon receiving a GET request, VRChat will sometimes chain redirects, replying with 302 Found, 302 Moved Temporarily, or 307 Temporary Redirect with a target url in the Location response header.
If the HTTP GET was directed at an api endpoint (URL paths starting with /api/1/), you will need to sumbit a properly formatted User-Agent header with the request.
For example, the GET https://vrc.group/VRCHAT.0000 redirect looks like this:
GET /VRCHAT.0000 HTTP/1.1
Host: vrc.group
User-Agent: example/4.2.67 example@vrchat.community; https://discord.gg/vrchat; https://github.com/vrchatapi/vrchat.community
Accept: */*
HTTP/1.1 302 Found
Date: Mon, 06 Apr 2026 21:52:45 GMT
Content-Length: 0
Connection: keep-alive
Location: https://vrchat.com/api/1/groups/redirect/VRCHAT.0000
Users
https://vrch.at/<userId>
- redirects to
https://vrchat.com/home/user/<userId>
Notably, this method does not work for users with old IDs like 8JoV9XEdpo (the UserID for the official VRChat account), as these are interpreted as shortNames for instances.
Instances
https://vrch.at/<shortName>
- redirects to
https://vrchat.com/i/<shortName> - which redirects to
https://vrchat.com/home/launch?worldId=<worldId>&instanceId=<instanceId>&shortName=<shortName>
Worlds
Worlds are treated as a special case for instances. They do not link directly to the world info page.
https://vrch.at/<worldId>
- redirects to
https://vrchat.com/home/launch?worldId=<worldId>
Groups
https://vrc.group/<groupCodeAndDisc>
- redirects to
https://vrchat.com/api/1/groups/redirect/<groupCodeAndDisc> - which redirects to
https://api.vrchat.com/api/1/groups/redirect/<groupCodeAndDisc> - which redirects to
https://vrchat.com/home/group/<groupId>
The last redirect is actually programmatically useful, as it can be used to resolve a group code with discriminator to the group's ID without having to use the 'search groups' API endpoint.
Ex.: GET https://api.vrchat.com/api/1/groups/redirect/VRCHAT.0000 redirects to https://vrchat.com/home/group/grp_7ccb6ca3-cd36-4dab-9ab1-7bcf08d794e4
Calendar Events
https://vrch.at/c/<shortCode>
- redirects to
https://vrchat.com/api/1/shortCode/c/<shortCode> - which redirects to
https://vrchat.com/home/group/<groupId>/calendar/<calendarId>
As of 2026-04-06, the last redirect is speculative (as /api/1/shortCode/c/<shortCode> always returns a 404 Not Found), but is based on unused code visible in the website.
Instances
Instances are parallel "rooms" or "lobbies" of a world. Each instance can only hold a limited number of users, but there is no limit on how many instances can exist of a world. Instances are uniquely identified by the combined World ID and Instance ID.
Websocket API
VRChat's Websocket API, also known as "the pipeline", is used receiving updates regarding the API, such as receiving an invite request. The connection is receive-only, meaning that you can only listen for messages. Sending messages is undefined behavior.