Sell PDFs online guides, workbooks and reports, delivered the moment they pay.
A PDF is the simplest digital product there is: a guide, a workbook, a checklist, a research report, a meal plan. It is also the product most often given away for free, which is exactly why the paid version needs a checkout that feels deliberate rather than an email-me-for-the-link arrangement.
Overview
With EmbPay you upload the PDF once, set a price, and either share the hosted page or embed the checkout on the blog post that made people want it. The buyer pays by card, receives a private download link by email within seconds, and the money is in your own Stripe account. No marketplace, no listing fees, and no percentage of the sale taken by the checkout.
How pdfs are priced in practice.
Short guides and checklists usually sell in single digits to the low tens; in-depth reports and professional templates go far higher, and research or industry reports are routinely priced in the hundreds.
Price by the problem the PDF solves, not the page count. A two-page checklist that saves an afternoon can be worth more than a hundred-page compilation. If you are unsure, pay-what-you-want with a floor tells you what readers think it is worth, and you can switch to a fixed price once you know.
Pricing options that fit
- One-time — a guide, report or template.
- Pay-what-you-want with a minimum — for a first product or a community resource.
- Split-pay — for a high-priced professional report, two or three instalments lower the barrier without lowering the price.
One product can carry up to six pricing options; the buyer chooses at checkout. Full detail in subscriptions, split-pay and pay-what-you-want.
Selling pdfs with EmbPay takes three steps.
- 1
Create the product
In the dashboard, add a product with a name, description and price. Choose how it is delivered: upload a file, point to a hosted URL, issue a licence key, or show instructions after purchase.
- 2
Package your pdfs
One PDF is one upload. If the product is a workbook with separate printable worksheets, or a guide sold alongside an EPUB version, zip them together and upload the archive; EmbPay hosts a single file per product, up to 500 MB, so even an image-heavy report fits comfortably. Name the file the way you want it to appear on the buyer's desktop, because that name is what they will see.
- 3
Share the link or embed the checkout
Every product has a hosted page you can link from anywhere, and an embed snippet for your own site. Connect your Stripe account and buyers can pay; until then the page says the product is not on sale yet.
The parts of EmbPay pdfs sellers actually use.
Every item here is enforced in code, on the free plan unless it says otherwise.
Sell from the article that earned the trust
Embed the checkout directly under the blog post or newsletter issue the PDF expands on. Buyers pay where they are convinced, on a page you control.
A link that expires on your terms
Choose a download window from one hour to never. The default is one day from purchase. PDFs are easy to forward, so a short window is the practical protection against a link travelling further than the sale did.
Coupons and a recovery email
Percentage or fixed-amount coupons with usage caps and expiry dates for launches. If a buyer starts checkout and leaves, EmbPay can send one recovery email an hour later, if you turn that on.
The upsell after the sale
Offer the companion workbook or a consultation as a one-click upsell on the page right after payment. Accepting charges the card they just used; declining can branch to a smaller offer.
What a sale costs you: Stripe's fee, and nothing else.
EmbPay platform fee
On every plan, including free. There is no per-sale percentage and no per-order charge anywhere in the payment path.
0%
Stripe processing
Billed by Stripe on your own account, as on any card payment. Usually 2.9% + 30¢ for a US domestic card; other countries differ.
Stripe's rate
Monthly
Free covers two products. Pro adds unlimited products, licence keys and API keys. Neither takes a cut.
$0 or $29
Work out the exact Stripe fee for your country and price with the Stripe fee calculator.
Selling pdfs: the questions we get.
Is the PDF watermarked with the buyer's name?
No. EmbPay delivers the file you uploaded, unchanged. If you want personalised copies you would need to produce them yourself. What EmbPay does offer is a short-lived download link, which stops a forwarded link working after the window you set.
How quickly does the buyer get the file?
The confirmation email, with its “Get your download” button, is sent as soon as the payment succeeds. The buyer also has the link in their customer hub, reachable by email without creating an account.
Can I sell the same PDF at different prices?
One product can carry up to six pricing options, for example a personal-use price and a team price, and the buyer picks one at checkout. For a launch discount, use a coupon rather than a second option so the original price stays visible.
What if I update the PDF later?
Replace the file on the product and new buyers get the new version. Existing links point at the product's current file, so a buyer whose link is still live will also get the update; there is no mechanism to email past buyers automatically, so announce revisions yourself.
Do I have to charge VAT or sales tax?
That depends on where you and your buyers are. If you switch on tax collection, Stripe Tax calculates and collects it on your own Stripe account. EmbPay is not the merchant of record, so the registration and filing are yours.
Start selling pdfs on the free plan.
No card required. Build the product and rehearse the checkout in test mode, then connect your Stripe account to be paid.
Also selling ebooks, study notes, notion templates or canva templates? Or see everything you can sell with EmbPay.