PDF read receipts
Know they opened it
Turn on read receipts and each reader gets a "Mark as received" button. When they tap it, the confirmation lands in your readership report - who, when, and their name or email if you invited them by name.
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Free · no account needed to start · read receipts are a Basic feature, switched on per document
A receipt they choose to send
The reader taps "Mark as received" in the viewer. It is an explicit confirmation - not a silent pixel - so a receipt means someone actually acknowledged the document, not that a preview loaded.
Who, and when
Every receipt is stamped with the moment it was sent and tied to the reading session behind it. Invite readers by name and the receipt carries their name and email instead of an anonymous mark.
One receipt per reader
A reader confirms once. Returning to the document does not re-fire the receipt, so your list of confirmations stays a clean roll-call rather than a pile of duplicates.
Optional email-on-receipt
Want to hear about it without watching the dashboard? Switch on email-on-receipt and FileDroppr emails you when a reader confirms - throttled so a busy document never buries your inbox.
Proof of delivery, attached to proof of reading
An email attachment tells you nothing after you press send: you cannot tell whether the contract was opened, whether the policy handbook was acknowledged, or whether the board pack reached the whole board. A read receipt closes that gap. The reader taps a button to confirm they received the document, and that acknowledgement sits in your report next to the reading session it belongs to - so delivery and readership live in one place.
A receipt is deliberately an explicit act, not a tracking trick. It answers a different question from a view count: not "did the pages load" but "did this person acknowledge the document". Underneath it is the full PDF read tracking you get on every FileDroppr link - views, per-page reading time, and returning readers - with the receipt as the human confirmation on top.
How read receipts work
- Turn it on per document. Read receipts are a per-document toggle in the sharing settings - on for the contract, off for the newsletter. No new link, no new file.
- The reader confirms. A "Mark as received" button appears in the viewer. The reader taps it once to acknowledge the document; nothing is sent until they do.
- You see the confirmation. Each receipt appears in your readership report with a timestamp and, when the reader was invited by name, their name and email - not just an anonymous count.
- One receipt per reader. A confirmation fires once per reader and does not repeat on later visits, so the list of who acknowledged stays accurate rather than inflated.
- Get emailed, optionally. Switch on email-on-receipt to be notified when a reader confirms - the notifications are throttled so a document read by many people sends you a manageable trickle, not a flood.
Where receipts earn their keep
Read receipts turn "I sent it, I hope they saw it" into a record. Send a contract and get an acknowledgement that the counterparty received the terms. Circulate a policy handbook or a compliance notice and collect a confirmation from each employee. Deliver client work as a link and have proof it landed. Distribute a board pack and see which directors have acknowledged it before the meeting rather than chasing round the table.
Receipts sit behind the same gate stack as the file itself, so a document protected by a password or an email gate only ever collects receipts from readers who got past it - and if you distributed the link with secure PDF sharing or sent it to a named list with a named contact list, the receipt inherits that identity automatically.
Read receipt questions.
What is a PDF read receipt?
A read receipt is an explicit confirmation from a reader that they received your document. On FileDroppr, the reader taps a "Mark as received" button in the viewer, and the confirmation appears in your readership report with a timestamp - and their name and email if you invited them by name. It is an acknowledgement someone chooses to send, not a silent tracking signal.
How is a receipt different from a view count?
A view count tells you the pages loaded; a read receipt tells you a specific person acknowledged the document. FileDroppr records both - full page-by-page readership underneath, and the receipt as a human confirmation on top - so you can distinguish "it was opened" from "they told me they got it".
Do I see who sent the receipt?
If you invited the reader by name or gated the document behind an email, yes - the receipt carries their name and email. For an anonymous link, you see the receipt and its timestamp tied to the reading session, without a name attached, because FileDroppr never stores a reader’s IP address.
Can one reader send multiple receipts?
No. A reader confirms once; coming back to the document later does not fire another receipt. Your list of confirmations stays a clean roll-call of who has acknowledged the document rather than a count that inflates on every revisit.
Can I be emailed when someone confirms?
Yes. Turn on email-on-receipt and FileDroppr emails you when a reader marks the document as received. The notifications are throttled, so a document confirmed by many people sends you a steady trickle rather than burying your inbox.
Which plan includes read receipts?
Read receipts are available from the Basic plan ($9/month) and switch on per document. Every plan stores files encrypted at rest and lets you set an expiry; Pro adds named reader identities, the email gate, and per-viewer watermarking on top.
Get the acknowledgement.
Upload a document, switch on read receipts, and share one link that tells you not just that it was opened - but that someone confirmed they got it.
See plansRelated: PDF read tracking · secure PDF sharing · send a PDF to contacts