Quick answer: upload the PDF to Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive or a PDF-to-link tool, set the link so anyone who has it can view, and copy the link. If you want to know when it is opened, use a tracked link such as Snapy's PDF to link.
Which option to pick
| Reader account? | Password | Expiry | Open alert | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Drive | No (Anyone with the link) | No | Work or school only | No |
| Dropbox | No (view-only link) | Paid plans | Paid plans | No |
| OneDrive | No (Anyone link) | Microsoft 365 | Microsoft 365 | No |
| Snapy | No | Free | Free | Free |
Paid plans for Dropbox means Professional, Essentials and team plans, not Basic or Plus. "No" in the last column means the sharing settings described in their help pages offer no open alert. The steps below are taken from each company's own help pages, checked on 7 October 2026.
Google Drive
- Go to drive.google.com, click New, then File upload, and pick the PDF.
- Right-click the file and choose Share.
- Under General access, click the down arrow and choose Anyone with the link.
- Set the role to Viewer.
- Click Copy link and paste it into your email or message.
Two things to know. With Restricted (the default), only people you added by email can open it, and anyone else lands on a "request access" page. And Google's own help page says viewers can download, print and copy by default: to stop that, open Share, then its Settings, and untick the option that lets viewers and commenters download, print and copy. Expiry dates are only available on eligible work or school accounts. See Google's sharing guide.
Dropbox
- Log in to dropbox.com and upload the PDF.
- Hover over the file and click Share.
- Click Copy link.
- If you need view-only, make sure the link is a Link for viewing, not a link for editing.
If you instead share with specific people by email, Dropbox says the recipient must have a Dropbox account and be logged in. A view-only link avoids that. Passwords, expiry dates and disabled downloads are on Dropbox Professional, Essentials, Standard, Advanced, Business, Business Plus and Enterprise, not on Basic or Plus. See Dropbox's link settings page.
OneDrive
- Sign in at onedrive.com and upload the PDF.
- Select the file's circle icon, then Share at the top of the page.
- Open the link settings and choose Anyone, so people outside your organisation can open it.
- Untick Allow editing, and tick Block download if you want it read in the browser only.
- Select Copy link.
Watch for one default: a link made from File Explorer or Finder with Share a OneDrive link is set to Edit permission, according to Microsoft's help page. Expiry dates and passwords need a Microsoft 365 subscription, and on a work account your admin may have switched off Anyone links altogether. See Microsoft's sharing guide.
Snapy
- Open PDF to link and drop the PDF in the box, up to 150MB.
- Type a name for the link if you want one, such as
price-list, or leave it blank. - If you are not signed in, type the code Snapy emails you. That happens once per address.
- Copy the link. Add a password, an expiry date or view-only from the link's settings if you need them.
The reader opens the PDF in their browser with no account and no app. The free plan gives you one live link at a time.
The permission mistakes that cause most problems
- Restricted by default. A Drive link you forgot to switch to Anyone with the link sends your reader to a "request access" page, and you only find out when they reply.
- Anyone with the link means anyone. Whoever receives a forwarded copy can open it too. If that matters, add a password (Snapy, paid Dropbox, Microsoft 365) or an expiry date.
- Edit when you meant view. OneDrive's desktop share link starts as Edit. Check before you send.
- Blocking downloads is not blocking copies. Dropbox's own page notes that disabling downloads "doesn't prevent people from saving the content using other methods". A screenshot still works on every service.
- People added directly keep their access. On Dropbox, link settings such as a password only apply to people who arrive through the link, not to people you added by name.
How to know if your PDF was opened
Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive are built for storing and sharing files, not for telling you who read them. Google's Activity dashboard names viewers only for Docs, Sheets and Slides, and only for people in the same work or school domain, so it does not help with a PDF you sent to a client.
A tracked link does. On Snapy's free plan, every open is counted with the country and the referrer, downloads are counted separately, total reading time adds up, and you get an email the first time the link is opened. Snapy Pro adds an email on every open, the reader's name when the email gate is on, and the time spent on each page. Without the email gate, you see that the link was opened, not by whom, and a forwarded link counts its new reader as another open.
More on this in which pages someone read and document tracking.