The fastest way to share is through the Share button
Open the document you want to share in Google Drive. In the top right corner, you will see a blue button labeled Share. Click it. A panel will open on the right side of your screen asking who you want to share with and what permission level they should have.
Type the email address of the person you want to share with into the text field. If you are sharing with multiple people, type each email address and press Enter after each one. Google Drive will show you suggestions as you type — these are people from your contacts or your organization.
Before you click the final button to send the invitation, you must choose a permission level. This is the step most people skip, and it matters. The three options are Viewer (they can read but not change anything), Commenter (they can read and leave notes but not edit the document itself), and Editor (they can make changes to the document). Choose the one that matches what you actually want them to do, then click Share.
Key Takeaways
- The Share button in the top right opens a panel where you type email addresses and set permission levels before sending invitations.
- Viewer permission lets someone read the document but not change it; Commenter lets them leave notes; Editor lets them make changes.
- You can change who has access or what permissions they have at any time by opening the Share panel again and adjusting the settings.
- If you want to share with someone outside your organization, you may need to turn off a security setting called "Restricted" first.
- A shared document shows the names and profile pictures of everyone viewing it at the same time, visible in the top right corner.
How to change permissions after you have shared
You do not have to live with your first choice. Click the Share button again at any time. The panel shows everyone the document is currently shared with, their email addresses, and their permission level next to their name. Click on the permission level (it usually says "Viewer", "Commenter", or "Editor") and a dropdown menu appears with the other options. Select a new one and it takes effect when ready.
You can also remove someone entirely. In the Share panel, find their name and hover over it. A trash icon appears on the right side. Click it and they lose access to the document. They will not be able to open it anymore, and they will not receive a notification that you removed them — the document will straightforward stop appearing in their Google Drive.
Sharing with people outside your organization
If the person you want to share with has an email address that does not belong to your organization (for example, a personal Gmail address when you work at a company), Google Drive may block the share. You will see a message saying the document is "Restricted" and that sharing is not allowed.
To fix this, click the blue Change button next to "Restricted". A dialog box opens with two options: Restricted (only people you invite can access it) and Anyone with the link (anyone who has the link can open it, though they still need the permission level you set). Choose Restricted if you want to keep control over who sees it. This setting is usually what you want. Then try sharing again with the outside email address.
If you choose Anyone with the link, the document becomes accessible to anyone you send the link to, but people still cannot see it in Google Drive unless you share it with them directly. This is useful for sharing with a large group or with people whose email addresses you do not have, but it means you have less control over who ends up reading it.
Understanding what happens when someone opens a shared document
When you share a document with someone, they receive an email notification with a link. They click the link and the document opens in their browser. They do not need to read anything or create a copy — they are looking at the same document you are.
If you and the person you shared with are both looking at the document at the same time, you will see their cursor moving and their changes appearing in real time. Their name and profile picture appear in the top right corner of the document. This is useful for working together, but it also means you can see when someone is reading your document, even if they are not making changes.
If the person you shared with makes changes to the document, those changes are saved automatically. You do not have to do anything to accept them. If you want to see who changed what and when, click the clock icon in the top right corner. This opens the version history, which shows every change made to the document, who made it, and when.
Sharing a document with a group or team
If you want to share a document with many people at once, you can share it with a Google Group instead of typing individual email addresses. A Google Group is a single email address that represents a list of people. When you share with the group, everyone on that list gets access.
To do this, click the Share button and type the group email address into the text field, just as you would for a person. Google Drive will recognize it as a group and show you how many people are in it. Set the permission level and click Share. Everyone in the group will receive a notification and gain access to the document.
The advantage of sharing with a group is that you only have to set permissions once, even if the group has fifty people. If someone joins the group later, they automatically get access to any documents shared with that group. If someone leaves the group, they automatically lose access.
What to do if someone cannot open a shared document
The most common reason someone cannot open a document you shared is that they are signed into Google with the wrong account. If they have multiple Gmail addresses or work accounts, they need to make sure they are signed in with the email address you shared the document with. Ask them to check the profile picture in the top right corner of their browser — it shows which account they are currently using.
Another reason is that the document is still set to "Restricted" and their email address is not on the list of people you invited. Check the Share panel and make sure their email is there and spelled correctly. If it is misspelled, remove them and add them again with the correct spelling.
If they are on the list but still cannot open it, ask them to sign out of Google completely and then click the share link again. Sometimes Google Drive gets confused about permissions and signing out and back in fixes it. If that does not work, try removing them from the share list and adding them again.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I share a Google Drive document with someone who does not have a Google account?
No. Everyone who opens a Google Drive document must have a Google account and be signed in. If someone does not have a Google account, they can create one for free using any email address. Once they have an account, you can share the document with them using that email address.
What is the difference between sharing a document and sharing a folder?
When you share a folder, everyone you share it with can see all the documents inside that folder. When you share a single document, only that document is visible to them. Sharing a folder is useful if you want to give someone access to multiple related documents at once without having to share each one individually.
If I stop sharing a document with someone, can they still see the changes they made?
No. Once you remove someone from the share list, they lose all access to the document. They cannot open it, view it, or see any changes that were made after you removed them. The changes they made before you removed them are still in the document's version history, but they cannot see the document anymore.
Can I share a document with someone and prevent them from sharing it with other people?
Not directly. If you give someone Editor permission, they can share the document with other people. If you want to prevent this, give them Commenter or Viewer permission instead. Commenters and Viewers cannot share the document or change permissions, but they also cannot edit the content.
What happens if I delete a document that is shared with other people?
The document moves to your trash folder. People you shared it with can still open it and see it in their Google Drive until you permanently delete it from your trash. Once you empty your trash, the document is gone and no one can access it anymore.