No. Google Drive has no setting that makes a link stop working after one open or one download: none of its sharing help pages, checked on 23 October 2026, describe one. Drive can limit who opens a file, end a person's access on a date (on work and school accounts) and hide the download button. If the file should be gone after one download, put it in a one-time link and send that instead.
Can Google Drive make a one-time link?
Not built in. A Drive link keeps working for as long as its sharing settings allow. With General access set to Anyone with the link, Google says anyone who has the link can open the file without signing in to a Google account. Nothing in the help pages counts opens or downloads.
The workarounds people try are all manual:
- Switch it back to Restricted after they download it. Only people you added can open it then. You have to notice the download first, and it can't reach the copy they saved.
- Delete the file afterwards. Google notes that if you delete a shared file you own, people it was shared with can still make a copy until you delete it permanently.
- "Direct download" links passed around on forums. We found no Google help page that documents them, so don't count on how they behave.
How to make a Google Drive link expire
On eligible work or school accounts, a person's access can end on a date (Google Drive Help):
- Open Share and add the person.
- Click the arrow next to their name and choose Add expiration.
- Pick a date within one year.
The limits: personal Google accounts don't have it, folders allow it only for viewers, and Google describes it per person. Its pages describe no expiry for an Anyone with the link link. When access to a file expires, Google says the person falls back to whatever access they have on the folder it sits in.
How to stop people downloading a Drive file
In Share, open Settings and untick viewers and commenters under the option for who can download, copy and print (Google Drive Help). Google adds its own caveat: the limits work only inside Drive, Docs, Sheets and Slides, and you can't stop people sharing the content in other ways. A screenshot or a phone camera still works, as it does on any website.
How to send a one-time download link instead
Use a tool with a one-open limit. NO SUS deletes the files on the first download; Bitwarden Send switches the link off after the number of views you set and deletes the file on its deletion date.
- Bitwarden Send. Turn on Limit views and set it to 1 (Bitwarden). File Sends need Premium or a paid organization, files can be up to 500 MB (100 MB on mobile), and a Send is deleted at its deletion date, 7 days by default. Better than NO SUS for big files.
- NO SUS Burn Files. Up to 10 files, 50 MB combined, as one link, with no account for you or the person receiving it. Your browser encrypts the files before upload, and the key stays in the link after the #, which browsers do not send to our server. The page the link opens shows a button first, so a chat preview doesn't use it up. The first download does, and the files are deleted from our server. Steps: send a file that deletes after it is opened.
What a one-time link does not do
- It can't take back the copy they downloaded. One-time means the link, not their copy.
- It can't stop a screenshot or a photo of the screen.
- Whoever opens it first uses it up. If your recipient finds it already used, assume someone else got the file and tell them.
Drive link or one-time link: which one?
| You need | Use |
|---|---|
| Ongoing access for named people | Drive, General access Restricted, people added |
| Access that ends on a date | Drive expiration (work or school account) |
| A file that is gone after one download | A one-time link with a view limit |
| A file over 50 MB, once | Bitwarden Send with Limit views set to 1 |
Sending a PDF by email? See how to send a PDF securely. For text, a password or several files in one go, the one-time link generator does the same job. Need the file to come to you instead? Read how to receive files without sharing your phone number.