How to sell a PDF online: the main ways, and the rules to check before your first sale

Selling a PDF online sounds simple: you have a file, someone pays, they download it. In practice you need three things. A way to take the payment, a way to deliver the file, and a way to meet the rules that apply to selling to consumers at a distance. Here are the usual ways people do it today, then the checks to make before your first sale.

The main ways to sell a PDF today

Your own website and a payment provider

You put the PDF on a page of your site and connect a payment provider (a company that processes card payments for you). After the payment, the buyer gets a download link or an email with the file. You control the page, the price and the wording. You also handle the setup: the payment account, the delivery of the file, the order confirmation and the tax side.

A platform or marketplace for digital products

Some platforms host the file, show a product page, take the payment and send the download link for you. Some are online shops you build yourself, others are marketplaces where buyers already search. You set up less, and you follow the platform's own terms for fees, payouts and refunds. Read those terms before you upload anything.

Email, after a payment by link

For a handful of sales, some sellers send a payment link, then email the PDF by hand once the money arrives. It is quick to start. It also means you send every file and every confirmation yourself, and keep your own records.

What to check before your first sale

The rules below are summarised from official pages. They describe the general position, not your own situation: for that, ask an accountant or a legal adviser.

You have the rights to the content

GOV.UK explains that copyright protects original written work, illustration and photography automatically. It stops others from copying the work, distributing copies or putting it on the internet without permission. If your PDF reuses someone else's text, photos, charts or a purchased template, check that your licence allows you to sell it.

The price and the information before the order

For online sales to consumers in the UK, GOV.UK lists what to give before the order is placed. It includes your email address, your VAT number if you are registered, the total price or how it is calculated, how customers can pay, and a description of the digital content. Customers must be able to store your terms.

A confirmation the buyer can keep

You must confirm the contract as soon as possible, on paper, by email or in another format the customer can save. For downloads, that confirmation also repeats the information about the right to cancel. In practice, an emailed receipt with the order details does this job.

VAT on digital products

GOV.UK lists "e-books and other digitised documents", for example PDF files, among digital services, when they are delivered automatically. The rules then depend on where you are:

• UK seller, UK consumers: the sale is liable to UK VAT. You must register for VAT once your taxable turnover is more than £90,000, and you can choose to register below that.
• UK seller, EU consumers: VAT is due in the consumer's EU country, with no threshold given by GOV.UK. You either register for VAT in each EU country you sell to, or join the EU scheme for businesses outside the EU in one EU country. GOV.UK still calls it the Non-Union VAT MOSS; the EU now runs it as the non-Union scheme of the One Stop Shop.
• Seller established in one EU country, such as Ireland, selling to consumers in other EU countries: below €10,000 a year of such cross-border sales, VAT stays due under the rules of your own country. Above it, VAT is due where the consumer lives, and the One Stop Shop lets you declare it in one place.

GOV.UK adds a detail that matters for small sellers: a PDF emailed by hand is not treated as an e-service for VAT, while one sent automatically by your system is.

The 14-day right to cancel, and how it ends for a download

A consumer who buys at a distance can normally cancel within 14 days without giving a reason. Digital content is the exception, on one condition. GOV.UK says you must:

1. get the customer to agree to an instant download before it starts;
2. get them to confirm they know they will lose their 14-day right to cancel;
3. include this in your confirmation of the contract.

If you do not, the customer keeps their 14-day right to cancel without paying. Your Europe states the same rule for the EU: the exception applies once the download has started, after the buyer expressly agreed to lose the right of withdrawal.

Checklist before you publish your PDF

How it will work with Fillfold (coming soon)

Fillfold is built for a specific kind of PDF: a document made from your client's answers, such as a report, a plan or a quote. You build a form, design the PDF it produces, and share one link. That part works today: see what your client sees.

Paid downloads are not open yet. According to Fillfold's terms and home page, once they open, it will work like this:

• you set a price on a form's document; your client answers for free and pays right before downloading their PDF;
• Fillfold sells the document in its own name and collects the payment, so you do not handle any payment or card details; the buyer gets a receipt by email;
• before paying, the buyer is asked to request immediate supply and to acknowledge that they then lose their right to withdraw;
• you earn a share of the full price paid: 60% on Free, 85% on Pro and 70% on Pay as you go, depending on your plan on the day of the sale (see plans and credits);
• each month you get a statement of the previous month's sales in the app, send Fillfold an invoice for your share, and are paid by bank transfer;
• you remain responsible for the content of your forms and documents, and for declaring and paying your own taxes.

The help article paid downloads gives the details, which may still change before the launch.

If your PDF is a fixed file, such as an e-book, the ways described above fit it better. If it is a document built for each client, you can join the waiting list to be told once, when paid downloads open.