Updated 1 November 2026

How to share a PDF as a link

By João Saraiva

To share a PDF as a link, put it somewhere that serves it and send the address. Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive do it for free, and so do your own website and Solta. They differ in whether the link survives a new version, whether it can have a password, and whether you can tell it was opened.

Google Drive

1. Upload the PDF to Drive.
2. Select it and choose Share.
3. Under General access, choose Anyone with the link, as a Viewer.
4. Choose Copy link, and send it.

Whoever opens it needs no Google account, and can download, print and copy it unless you turn that off in the sharing settings. To change the PDF, use Manage versions → Upload new version, which replaces it inside the same file. A personal account can't see who opened it, and can't give the link a password or an end date: end dates are for work and school accounts.

Dropbox

Choose Share, then Copy link, for a link for viewing that anyone with it can open. Readers need no account to look at it. A password, an end date and turning off downloads are on Dropbox's paid plans, not on Basic. Dropbox shows no count of how many opened a link: someone who opens it appears only as Guest, while they look.

OneDrive

Choose Share, set the link to Anyone, untick Allow editing, and copy it. Editing is on by default, so check that box before you send it. Readers need no account to view it. A password and an end date need a Microsoft 365 subscription, and moving the file within OneDrive breaks its links.

Your own website

On WordPress, upload the PDF under Media → Add New and copy its File URL. It opens in the reader's browser, in the browser's own PDF viewer. A corrected copy doesn't replace it: WordPress gives a file whose name is taken a new one, like report-1.pdf, so the link you sent still shows the old PDF.

Solta

Drop the PDF on PDF to link and you get a link that opens it in Solta's viewer, which draws the pages itself, so it opens the same way in every browser and on every phone. Making the link needs no account. Without one, it lasts 24 hours: sign in to keep it.

Publish a corrected PDF to the same site and the link stays the same: everyone who has it sees the new one, and earlier versions are kept, the last 2 on Free.

A new site is Unlisted: anyone with the link opens it, and search engines are told not to index the PDF. One site can have a password for free, and on Pro and Team you can let in only the addresses you invite. You see how many opened it each day, roughly from where and on what kind of device, but not who. How Solta keeps sites out of search.

Which one to use

• The PDF already lives in Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive, and it only has to be read: share it from there.
• The PDF will change and the link has to keep working: Solta, or Drive's Manage versions.
• You want to know it was opened: Solta's counts. Drive on a personal account and Dropbox Basic show none.
• It should stay out of search, or be behind a password, without paying: Solta.

Sources

Each company's facts are what its own pages said when we read them, on 1 November 2026:

• Google Drive: share files, manage versions and who viewed a file
• Dropbox: share with people outside Dropbox, link settings and viewer info
• OneDrive: share files and folders
• WordPress: adding media and how a taken file name is changed
• Google Search: keeping a PDF out of results

Questions