How to create a link for a PDF document
- Drop the PDF on the box above, or press Choose files and pick it. No account is needed to start.
- The link comes back in a few seconds. Press the copy button and send it, or open it to see what the reader will see.
- To keep it for longer than 24 hours, press Claim it on the same card and sign in. The address stays the same, so a link you already sent keeps working.
Several PDFs can share one link: drop the folder, or a zip of it, and the link opens on a list of the files, each one opening in the viewer. Dropping a folder.
What the PDF link does
The link opens the PDF in Solta's viewer, in the browser. The viewer draws the pages itself, with PDF.js, so the document opens on phones whose browser has no PDF viewer of its own, such as Chrome on Android, where an attachment would only download. Pages are drawn as they come into view, so a long report stays light on a phone. The text can be selected and found with the browser's search, and there are zoom, fit and Download buttons.
Whoever opens it needs no account and nothing to install. On Free the page carries a small Solta badge; on Pro and Team it doesn't.
Who can open the link
A new site starts as Unlisted: anyone with the link can open it, and search engines are asked not to index it. You can change that at any time, and the link stays the same:
- Public, Unlisted or Private (only you and the people who edit it), on every plan.
- Password, on every plan: nothing is sent until the password is right, the PDF included. Free has 1 password-protected site at a time, once your email is confirmed.
- Invited, on Pro and Team: only the email addresses you add, each verified once.
- Only your team, on Team.
On every plan, the link can also stop opening on a date you choose. More in who can open a site.
Update the PDF without changing the link
A new edition of the document doesn't need a new link. Open the site in Solta, choose Make changes, then Upload a new version, and upload the new PDF. It is saved as a draft: the link keeps showing the old PDF until you publish the new one, so nobody reads a half-finished change. Each published version keeps its own address (/v/2/, and so on), and going back is putting an older one live again.
Free keeps the last 5 versions of each site; Pro and Team keep every one. How links and versions work.
See how often your PDF was opened
Each site has analytics: views and visitors by day, with countries, devices and the sites people came from. In a folder, each PDF is counted under its own address, so you can see which documents were read. Visitors are counted, not identified: there is no cookie, and you cannot see who opened it.
How far back you can look: 30 days on Free, 365 on Pro, and all of it on Team. To know who opened it, on Pro and Team the link can ask for an email address first, and you see each address and when it opened the PDF. What gets counted.
Comments on the PDF
When the PDF is opened in Solta, the Comments panel sits beside it. On a public or unlisted link anyone can comment, leaving their email with it; you get an email when they do. Commenting is free and never takes a seat. A comment can't be pinned to a spot on a PDF page yet, as it can on a web page: it stays in the panel. How comments work.
A QR code for your PDF
For a poster, a slide or a printed handout: open the site in Solta, and choose QR code from its ⋯ menu, or from the site's card in your library. It opens the PDF's link, and you can download it as a PNG or an SVG. The code is made in your browser, from the link alone. Update the PDF later and the printed code still opens the new one. More on making a QR code for a PDF, and printing it.
Limits
- A PDF can be up to 25 MB. A folder or zip of PDFs, up to 50 MB unpacked and 500 files. The same on every plan.
- Storage: 200 MB on Free, 10 GB on Pro, 25 GB for each publisher on Team. Views and bandwidth are not charged for, on any plan.
- Without an account, the link works for 24 hours unless you claim it.
- A PDF that has a password of its own can't be drawn in the viewer: it says so, and offers the file to download and open with that password.
Other ways to turn a PDF into a link
Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive can share a PDF at a link too, with their own preview, and are the obvious choice when the file already lives there. Two services made for publishing, as their own pages described their free plans on 20 October 2026:
| Service | Its free plan | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| tiiny.host | 1 active project, PDFs up to 0.5 MB, 5,000 visits a month | You log in at least once every three months to keep a free link online |
| Papermark | 50 documents and 50 links, unlimited visitors, page-by-page analytics | Made for tracked sharing: its home page lists per-viewer analytics and data rooms |
| Solta Free | PDFs up to 25 MB, 200 MB in all, a password on 1 site | A small Solta badge, and the last 5 versions kept; who opened it only on paid plans |
Sending a set of documents to a board or a client? Sharing PDFs as a link walks through one, and Solta and DocSend are side by side.
Questions
How do I make a PDF a link?
Drop the PDF on the box at the top of this page, or pick it with Choose files. In a few seconds you get its link, which opens the PDF in the browser. Copy it and send it, or paste it wherever a link goes: an email, a chat, a slide or a website.
Is it free?
Yes. Publishing needs no account, and the Free plan has no end date: PDFs up to 25 MB each, 200 MB of storage, the last 5 versions of each, and a small Solta badge on the page.
Does the person I send it to need an account?
No. A public or unlisted link opens for anyone who has it, and a password-protected one for anyone who types the password. Only Invited, on Pro and Team, asks each person to verify their email address once, still with no account.
Can I replace the PDF and keep the same link?
Yes. Open the site in Solta, choose Make changes, then Upload a new version, and upload the new PDF. It is saved as a draft, and the link keeps showing the old PDF until you publish it. The earlier version keeps an address of its own.
How long does the link work?
Without an account, 24 hours. Claim it from the card you get after publishing, by signing in, and it stays, at the same address: until you delete it, or until a date you set for the link to stop opening.
Can I see who opened my PDF?
You see how many people opened it and how often, by day, country and device, but not who they are: there is no cookie. To know who, on Pro and Team the link can ask for an email before it opens, or use Invited so only the people you add can open it.
Can people download the PDF?
Yes. The viewer has a Download button, and anyone who can open the link can save the file. A password or an invitation decides who can open it, not what they do with it afterwards.