Fax from Google Drive — Paste a Share Link
Send FAX Mail does not have a Google Drive file picker or a Drive OAuth app that browses your account. What it does have is import-from-link: you make a Drive file shareable, copy its public HTTPS link, and paste it into the import page at /dashboard/import (or the API's document_url field). Our server fetches the file behind an SSRF guard, checks the type, normalizes it to a fax-ready PDF, and sends it. So the Drive connection is real, but it runs through a link you paste rather than a native browser inside our app.
Plan requirement
Fax-from-a-link works on paid plans and counts against your monthly page allowance like any send. Pasting a link in /dashboard/import needs no API access; using the document_url field of the REST API instead requires the Business ($79.99/mo) or Enterprise ($169.99/mo) plan, since the API itself is gated to those tiers.
How it works
In Google Drive you set a file's sharing so that anyone with the link can view, then copy that link. On our side, /dashboard/import (and the REST API's document_url field) takes that HTTPS URL and fetches the document server-side. The fetch is SSRF-guarded — redirects are followed manually with the guard re-applied on each hop, so a link cannot be tricked into reaching an internal address — and the content type is checked against the faxable-mime list before anything is sent. A supported file is normalized to a PDF and run through the same gated send pipeline as a compose. Because we fetch the bytes at that moment, the link needs to resolve to the actual file, not to a Drive preview page.
What you can do
- ✓Fax a Drive document by pasting its shareable link at /dashboard/import
- ✓Send the same link through the REST API's document_url field on Business or Enterprise
- ✓Rely on an SSRF-guarded fetch that re-checks each redirect hop
- ✓Have the file type checked and normalized to a fax-ready PDF automatically
- ✓Skip base64-encoding a large file into a request body
- ✓Run the send through the same quota, BAA, and number gates as any fax
Setup steps
- 1In Google Drive, set the file's sharing to anyone-with-the-link can view
- 2Copy the share link, and make sure it resolves to the file itself, not a preview page
- 3Open /dashboard/import and paste the link into the document URL field
- 4Enter the recipient fax number and any cover-page details
- 5Send — our server fetches the file, checks its type, and normalizes it to a PDF
- 6Track the result in /dashboard/history, where quota and status are recorded
Example
# /dashboard/import
Document URL: https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=FILE_ID
Recipient: +15551234567Google Drive — FAQ
No, and we would rather be plain about it. There is no Drive browser inside our app and no OAuth connection to your Google account. You share the file to get a public link and paste that link into the import page or the API. An OAuth-based cloud picker remains an operator follow-up, not a shipped feature.
One that resolves directly to the file's bytes over HTTPS, not to a Drive preview page. A standard anyone-with-the-link view URL sometimes returns an HTML preview instead of the file; the direct-download form of the link is more reliable. If our fetch gets HTML instead of a PDF or image, the type check will reject it.
The fetch is SSRF-guarded. It refuses links that resolve to internal or private addresses, and when a link redirects, each hop is re-checked with the same guard so a redirect cannot smuggle the request somewhere it should not go. Only a public, faxable file gets normalized and sent.
Only until the send completes. We fetch the bytes at send time and store the resulting PDF ourselves, so you can restrict the Drive file's sharing again afterward. But if the link is already private or expired when you submit, the fetch fails and no fax goes out.
Build with the Google Drive
API access and webhooks are included on the Business and Enterprise plans. Create a key at /dashboard/developers and start sending.
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