PDF to Link: How to Create a Link for a PDF

Quick Answer

"A link to a PDF" can mean four different things, and what your reader sees depends on which one you make. For most people the free file link is enough: upload the PDF to cloud storage, set sharing to anyone with the link and copy the address.

This page is about a link to a PDF. A clickable link inside a PDF, or a link to one page of a PDF, is a different job, and we did not cover it.

File Link

A file link opens the PDF straight from your cloud storage. All three big storage services give you one for free.

Google Drive. Upload the PDF to Drive, then select it and click Share. Under General access, click the down arrow and choose Anyone with the link, select the role, click Copy link and click Done. These are the steps on Google's sharing page, which says anyone on the internet with the link can open the file without signing in to a Google Account. On a work or school account, the same page says your administrator may restrict external link sharing.

Google lists Portable Document Format (.PDF) among the files you can preview in Drive, and says the preview is a scaled-down version of the complete file that may look slightly different when opened. The same page says a file can be up to 5 TB. Google says all Google accounts come with up to 15 GB of storage.

Dropbox. Log in to dropbox.com, hover over the PDF and click Share, then click Copy link. To set what people can do, click Manage and choose Link for editing or Link for viewing, then click Copy link. These are the steps on Dropbox's help page, which says that if the person has no account or prefers not to log in, you can share a view-only link instead. The same page lists a password on shared links for Professional, Standard, Advanced and Enterprise plans. The free Basic plan gives 2 GB to store and share your files.

iCloud Drive. Select the PDF in iCloud Drive and choose Share a Link from the pop-up menu. Under Who can access, choose Anyone with the link, set the permission to Can view or download, then select Copy Link. See Apple's guide to sharing files on Mac. Apple's page does not say whether a viewer previews the PDF in the browser or only downloads it, and we could not confirm which. iCloud gives 5 GB free.

Flipbook

A flipbook is not your PDF. It is a web copy of it with page-turning. FlipLink's own tool page says your file is converted into an online flipbook that readers open in their browser, with no downloads needed. FlippingBook describes the same idea: the PDF becomes a flipbook, with up to 2,000 pages from PDFs up to 1 GB.

• FlipLink. The free tool takes files up to 40 MB. You enter your email, get a 4-digit code, and if the email is new the tool creates a FlipLink account for it, per FlipLink's tool page. Its pricing page sells a Lifetime Deal as one payment: $39 for 10 flipbooks and 150 MB a PDF, $89 for 50 and $129 for 100.
• FlippingBook. The same page gives a 14-day free trial with no credit card. It does not show plan names or prices, and we did not read its pricing page.

Pick a flipbook when you want the page-turning look. If the reader needs the PDF itself, to print or fill in, use a file link or a hosted page instead.

Hosted Page

Tools that call themselves PDF hosting give your PDF its own web address, with no cloud storage account behind it. The free plans all have a limit that decides whether a real PDF fits.

• Tiiny Host. Tiiny Host's PDF page says readers open the PDF straight from the link on desktop or mobile, with no download or sign-up, and that you can choose your own link name. Its PDF upload page gives the free plan one active project, PDFs up to 0.5 MB, 5,000 visits and 5 GB of bandwidth a month, and a small Tiiny Host banner. The PDF stays online on the free plan as long as your account is active, if you log in once every 3 months.
• PDF to Link. Its home page says it converts your documents into shareable URLs, and that you can upload files up to 2 MB without signing in. Its pricing page gives the free plan a 10 MB single file limit, 7 days of file validity and 50 monthly uploads. Pro raises the file limit to 500 MB and adds a password setting.
• Static.app. Static.app offers a free subdomain and a PDF viewer that works across browsers, and it can lock a document behind a password. The free option is a 7-day trial for PDFs up to 50 MB. The page does not say what happens to a free PDF after the 7 days, and it says you can serve a PDF from your own domain on a paid plan, from $6 a month (the page does not state the billing basis).
• Linkyhost. Linkyhost gives free users PDFs up to 10 MB with a free account, and says free uploads are publicly accessible via the generated link. Pro raises the limit to 100 MB and adds a password. The page shows no prices.
• Smallpdf. Smallpdf's Share PDF page generates a shareable link once you upload the PDF, and needs a free account. The page gives no size limit, expiry, password option or price.

Prices for the main paid plans are in Cost below. We could not confirm Smallpdf's or Linkyhost's prices, and Static.app's "from $6 a month" has no stated billing basis, so we left it out of the table.

QR Code

A QR code for a PDF is a code for the link to the PDF, so make the link first with any route above, then turn it into a code. If you searched for "PDF to QR code", this is the same job in two steps.

There are two kinds of code, and the difference decides what happens after you print. Uniqode's plans article, dated 22 September 2026, describes them like this:

• Static. Free to create, does not expire and cannot be edited, so the destination is fixed once the code exists.
• Dynamic. Needs an active subscription, lets you change the destination without reprinting, and can expire depending on the plan. A dynamic code made during a free trial stops working when the trial ends. A second Uniqode article says dynamic codes stop working after the renewal date if you cancel.

Before you print, ask two questions. Does the code still work if the PDF changes, and does it depend on an account you must keep paying? These routes make a code from your PDF link:

• Dropbox. The help page, shown as updated 13 October 2026, has a section called How to create a view-only QR code to a Dropbox file or folder. Hover over the file, click Share, click the more options button, click Create QR code, then click Save to download it as a .png file. The page does not say whether the code is static or dynamic.
• Chrome. Chrome Help, computer steps: go to the page, then More, Cast, save, and share, Create QR code, and select Download. The code is for the page you have open, so open your PDF link in Chrome first. The page does not say whether the code is static or dynamic, and we did not test it.
• Tiiny Host. Its PDF page says that from the Tiny plan up the dashboard makes a QR code from the link, and that the code keeps working when you replace the PDF as long as the link name stays the same. Its separate PDF to QR code page says the tool is free to use, so the two pages disagree: check which plan you are on.
• PDF to Link. Its home page says to copy the link or download the QR code when the upload finishes, and that free links stay active for 7 days. A code on paper outlasts a 7-day file.
• Hovercode. Its free PDF tool takes PDFs up to 2 MB, and says the code is static: it always opens the file you uploaded. A new upload gets a new link and a new code, and the free tool cannot update a printed one. For PDFs up to 10 MB the page points to a free Hovercode account.

For print, a code on a flyer or business card sends people to the same address as the link, so a link that expires or is paused stops working for the code as well.

Host It Yourself

If you want to host a PDF online yourself, and you already run a website or like a free static host, you can put the PDF in the site's folder and it gets its own address. The four routes below cost nothing, and each has one limit that decides it. If you do not run a site, skip this section.

• Cloudflare Pages. In the dashboard, go to Workers & Pages, Create application, Get started, then Drag and drop your files. Name the project, drop a zip file or a single folder of assets, and click Deploy site, per Cloudflare's direct upload guide. The site is served at <PROJECT_NAME>.pages.dev. The limit: a single file can be up to 25 MiB, so a larger PDF cannot go on it.
• Netlify Drop. Netlify's page says you drag a project folder to Netlify Drop, and lists the method as needing no account. The limit: it says to unzip a zip file first, so the PDF has to sit in a folder. The page gives no size limit, and we did not read Netlify's prices.
• GitHub Pages. Create a repository named username.github.io, then go to Settings, Pages and choose Deploy from a branch, per GitHub's quickstart. It can take up to 10 minutes for changes to publish. The limit: published sites may be no larger than 1 GB.
• Your own site builder. Adobe's guide to hosting a PDF on your website says to upload the PDF to your website directly, using your website builder's file manager, then add a file block to a page. The limit is whatever your builder allows, and Adobe's page gives no figure.

We did not test how each browser draws the PDF; the file is served at its own address. The pages we read do not mention tracking who opened the PDF. For that, see our post on proposal tracking.

Change the PDF

Sooner or later the PDF changes. What happens to the link depends on the tool:

• Tiiny Host. Replace the PDF and the link stays the same, in the page's own words.
• FlippingBook. No matter how often you update a flipbook, the link to it won't change.
• FlipLink. The pricing page lists Replace PDF on every plan. It does not say whether the link stays the same.
• Google Drive. Select the file, click More, then File information, Manage versions, and Upload new version, per Google's page on file versions. Google says a version might be permanently deleted after 30 days or if there are 100 newer versions. The page does not say the shared link stays the same, so we cannot promise it.
• Loop. Replace File shows everyone with the link the new file, and every earlier copy is kept and can be restored.

Loop

For one PDF sent once, a Google Drive link is the right answer. Loop is for the PDF you send again and again, when you want your name on it and some control over the link. It is a Mac app rather than a host: drop the PDF on it and the link opens the PDF with your name on it, and a folder with an index.html at the top is shared as a website instead.

1. Drop the PDF on the Loop icon in the menu bar, or choose File > New Link.
2. Link Copied. Loop copies the link, ready to paste.
3. Paste it into an email or a message.

• The PDF itself, in your name. The reader sees the PDF's own pages in their browser, not a flipbook, with no app and no account. You set your brand name, logo and colors, and can use an address on a subdomain of your own domain with one DNS record.
• Password, expiry, view only. Each link has a password, an Expires menu (Never, In 1 Day, In 7 Days, In 30 Days, In 90 Days, with Never the default) and Allow Downloads, which you can turn off so the reader can only read the PDF in the browser.
• Replace File and versions. Swap in a new PDF and the address stays the same. The older versions are kept in your storage, and you can restore one.
• Show QR Code. The Link menu draws a code of the link's own address, for pointing a phone at your screen. Because the code is only your link, Replace File changes the PDF behind a printed code without changing the code. A paused or expired link shows the reader a closed page, and in Customise, on the Closed Links tab, you can replace Loop's words with your own message and a button. The card has no save button, so for a poster copy the link and make a code with Chrome or Dropbox.
• A Mac notification. Your Mac shows a notification the first time each reader's browser opens the link, and when it is downloaded, while Loop is running. The link row shows how far a reader got, such as "Read 3 of 8 Pages", which is the furthest page reached, not the pages read.

Readers use a web browser on a Mac, a PC or a phone. Only the sender needs the Mac.

Limits

Loop does not suit every PDF link. Here is what it does not do:

• It does not make a flipbook. The reader gets the PDF's pages.
• It does not shrink or encrypt the PDF. The password guards the link page. If you allow downloads, the reader gets the original file with no password inside it.
• It has no search box in the reader. The pages have selectable text, but we found no search inside the PDF.
• It cannot save a QR code image. The card has no save, copy or share button, so make the code for a poster with another tool. It also has no scan count: Loop counts opens of the link and does not tell a scan from a click.
• It does not add a clickable link inside a PDF.
• It does not work from an iPhone or Windows. The sender needs a Mac running macOS 14 or later.
• It does not alert you by email or phone. Alerts are Mac notifications while Loop is running.
• It has no free plan. There is a 14-day trial, and you need a Cloudflare account.

We do not promise a maximum file size.

Cost

Every kind of link above has a free route. Here is what the paid plans cost.

These are US dollars for one person, and we could not confirm whether tax is included. Where a vendor sells yearly billing, the figure is the yearly one. Google One Basic (100 GB) is $19.99 a year on annual billing and $1.99 a month on monthly billing. Dropbox Standard is $15 a user a month billed yearly, which is $180, and it lists Password protect files and Brand your files to share, which makes it the cheapest Dropbox plan with password links. Dropbox Plus is $9.99 a month billed yearly ($119.88) with 2 TB, but the plan comparison table marks password-protected links as not included on it. iCloud+ with 50 GB is $0.99 a month, which is $11.88 a year, and we found no annual price. Tiiny Host's Tiny plan is $5 a month billed yearly, which is $60, and Solo, with password protection, is $13 a month billed yearly, which is $156. PDF to Link Pro is $4 a month billed yearly, which is $48, or $6 a month billed monthly, which is $72. FlipLink's pricing page marks its prices as USD in its page data. PDF to Link shows "$" without naming a currency, so we read it as US dollars.

For what a few years of these add up to, see our post on the three-year cost of file sharing.

A PDF link made in Loop points at a file in your own Cloudflare account, and the first 10 GB there cost nothing. Beyond that Cloudflare charges you, at $0.015 per GB-month with no data-transfer charge when people open or download the file, according to Cloudflare's pricing page, updated 30 October 2026. Cloudflare may ask for a card when you turn storage on.

Trying Loop for your PDF links costs nothing for 14 days, counted from the first time you open the app, and no payment is needed to begin. In that period the pages your clients see carry a small "Shared with Loop" badge, which a licence removes.