How to Upload a PDF to Google Drive

To upload a PDF to Google Drive, go to drive.google.com, click New > File upload, and choose the PDF. You can also drag the PDF from your computer straight into an open Drive folder. On a phone, open the Google Drive app, tap the add button, and choose File upload (or Upload on Android).

These steps follow Google’s Upload files & folders to Google Drive help article, which has separate instructions for computers, Android, and iPhone and iPad.

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How to Upload a PDF to Google Drive on a Computer

Go to drive.google.com on your computer.
Open the folder you want, if any. Google says you can upload into private or shared folders.
Click New at the top left.
Click File upload.
Select the PDF and click Open.

Steps to upload a PDF to Google Drive: New, File upload, choose the PDF — Illustration: the steps to upload a PDF to Google Drive from a computer.

Result: The PDF appears in the folder you had open. Google notes that the creation time is set to the upload time, while the modification time shows when the file last changed on your computer, so it can look older than the upload.

Drag and Drop a PDF Into Drive

Go to drive.google.com.
Open or create a folder.
Drag the PDF from your computer into the Drive window.

Result: The PDF uploads into that folder. This works for several files or a whole folder at once.

Upload From the Drive for Desktop App

If you install Drive for desktop, Google says you’ll find a folder called Google Drive on your computer. Drag the PDF into that folder and it uploads to Drive, where you can find it on drive.google.com. The same steps work for Word files; to turn one into an editable Google Doc afterward, see how to convert a Word document to a Google Doc.

How to Upload a PDF From an iPhone, iPad, or Android

Open the Google Drive app.
On iPhone or iPad, tap Add > File upload. On Android, tap New > Upload.
Find and tap the PDF.
On iPhone or iPad, tap Location to choose a folder, then tap Upload.

Card showing how to upload a PDF to Google Drive from a phone — Illustration: how to upload a PDF to Google Drive from a phone.

Result: The PDF uploads to Drive. Google says that on Android, uploaded files stay in My Drive until you move them, and that on iPhone you can rename the file before uploading by tapping File Name. On Android, you can limit uploads to Wi-Fi in the Drive app under Menu > Settings > Transfer files only over Wi-Fi.

Save a PDF to Drive Without Downloading It First

From Chrome: Google says that when you open a PDF in Chrome, you can select Save to Drive at the top right of the PDF viewer, pick your Google Account, and select Save. The file lands in a Saved from Chrome folder. This doesn’t work in Incognito mode or a Guest profile.
From Gmail: You can hover over a PDF attachment in an email and click the Drive icon, or open the preview and click Add to Drive.

Good to Know

Google says uploaded files count toward your Drive storage, even if you upload to a folder someone else owns.
You can upload up to 750 GB a day per account.
If you upload a PDF with the same name as one already in that folder, Google saves it as a new version of the existing file. Click Keep both files when asked if you want two separate copies.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I edit a PDF after uploading it to Google Drive?

Drive keeps the PDF as a PDF file. To link to it or show one of its pages inside a document, see how to put a PDF into Google Docs. To edit the text, open it as a Google Doc; see how to convert a PDF to a Google Doc.

Why did my upload replace an older PDF?

Google says a file with the same name is uploaded as a revision of the file already in Drive. Choose Keep both files during the upload, or rename the PDF first.

More Google Drive Guides

Matthew Burleigh

Matthew Burleigh has been writing tech tutorials since 2008. His writing has appeared on dozens of different websites and been read hundreds of millions of times.

After receiving his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science he spent several years working in IT management for small businesses. However, he now works full time writing content online and creating websites.

His main writing topics include iPhones, Microsoft Office, Google Apps, Android, and Photoshop, but he has also written about many other tech topics as well.