How to Send a Fax From a Chromebook
A Chromebook is built around the web browser, which makes it a natural fit for online faxing and a poor fit for anything requiring installed hardware drivers. ChromeOS has no fax feature and no support for a plug-in fax modem, so the old-fashioned route is a dead end. But because a Chromebook can save any document as a PDF and open any website, sending a fax through a web-based service is straightforward.
Can a Chromebook fax at all?
Only online. ChromeOS does not include fax software and cannot use a USB fax modem, so there is no local way to place a fax call from a Chromebook. That limitation matters less than it sounds, because the Chromebook's core strengths — a capable browser and a built-in Print to PDF option — are exactly what an online fax service needs. You make the PDF on the Chromebook and the service does the transmitting.
How to send a fax from your Chromebook
- 1Open your document, press Ctrl+P, and choose Save as PDF as the destination to create a fax-ready file (or use a PDF from your Files app or Google Drive).
- 2Go to Send FAX Mail in Chrome, start the 7-day trial, and verify your email so sending is enabled.
- 3Upload the PDF from the Chromebook's Files app or straight from Google Drive.
- 4Enter the recipient's fax number with its area code in the destination field.
- 5Add a cover page with a note if needed, then click Send.
- 6Keep the confirmation email that records when the fax was received.
Before you send
Google Drive integration is the Chromebook's advantage — you can fax a document that already lives in Drive without downloading it first. Use Save as PDF from the print menu for anything that starts as a web page or a Google Doc so it arrives at a fixed page size. If you need to fax paper, a USB scanner connected to the Chromebook can scan into Files, or you can photograph the page on your phone and send it to Drive to reach it from the Chromebook.
Send a fax from Chromebook — FAQ
Any Android fax app you side-load onto a Chromebook still routes through an internet gateway, since neither ChromeOS nor Android exposes a fax modem. Running the send in Chrome through Send FAX Mail avoids the extra app and keeps everything in the browser the Chromebook is designed around.
You fax it by first turning it into a PDF — open the Doc, choose File then Download then PDF, or use Print and Save as PDF. Then upload that PDF to send. Google Docs has no built-in fax command, but the conversion is a single step and preserves your formatting.
No. ChromeOS has no driver for fax modems, so plugging one in does nothing. This is why online faxing is the only practical option on a Chromebook, and it happens to be the simplest one since it needs no drivers at all.
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