Google Drive Direct Link Generator

About

This tool allows you to generate a direct download link to files you have stored in Google Drive. A direct link will immediately start downloading the file, rather than opening a preview of the file in Google Drive.

Notes

Make sure your file's visibility in Google Drive is set to "Anyone with the link". If it's set to "Restricted" then only people who are logged in to Google and have been granted access to the file will be able to open the direct link (which probably isn't what you want).
This only works for uploaded files, not documents created in Google Docs/Sheets/Slides.
If your file is very large, the direct link may first open a page saying that the file is too large for Google to scan for viruses. That page will have a button to download the file.

Site by mogzol, updated Aug 31, 2023

How to Get Your Sharing URL

Step 1: Go to Google Drive and right click the file that you want to share, then click on "Share"

Step 2: In the window that comes up, change the access to "Anyone with the link"

Step 3: Click "Copy link"

Step 4: Paste that link into the text box above and click "Create Direct Link" to create your link. Enjoy!

How Does it Work?

This site takes your sharing URL, which is a URL that looks something like this:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LDRlyZaZTF-bxHjBDEiL2obMxYHtf3YT/view?usp=sharing

And it extracts the file ID, the part between /d/ and /view, and puts it into a new URL which looks like this:

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1LDRlyZaZTF-bxHjBDEiL2obMxYHtf3YT

And that's it! The new URL format causes Google Drive to serve the file directly as a download, instead of opening a preview. You can do this conversion yourself manually if you want to, this site just makes it a little bit easier. The conversion happens entirely in your browser, your sharing URL is never sent or stored anywhere.

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