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Share content externally with public links
Public links allow teams to share individual Confluence pages with people outside of Confluence without giving them access to Confluence. This could be useful for sharing information to the public, like customer FAQs, release notes, shareholder letters, and more.
On this page, you’ll find guidance on how to use public links to share your content with anyone on the internet.
For details on how public links work, go to How secure are public links?
If you’re an admin looking for guidance on how to get started with public links, go to Control whether spaces can allow public links.
Public links are only available on Confluence’s paid plans (Standard, Premium, and Enterprise). Only Confluence pages can have public links, not any other type of Confluence content (e.g., whiteboards, blogs, etc.).
Turn on a public link
A public link is available for any page in Confluence. Always use caution when sharing content externally.
Pages will only ever have one public link
If you turn a page’s public link off, anyone using it to try to access the page will run into a 404 page. But if you later turn the public link back on, people who already have the public link will again be able to access the page, because it’s the same link.
To turn on and share a public link:
Go to the page you want a public link for.
Open Share in the top right of the page.
Turn on the public link toggle at the bottom of the Share window.
The public link will be automatically copied, for your convenience.
Or if the public link toggle is already on, select Copy public link.
Paste the link in an email, a chat tool, on social media — wherever you want to communicate with the audience for the page.
If you can’t turn on a public link, then you don’t have permission to turn it on. This could be because:
public links aren’t allowed in the space (or on your site)
the specific public link has been blocked by an admin
you don’t have permission to edit the page
you don’t have space permission to edit restrictions for pages in the space
Be aware that anyone you share a public link with can share that link with anyone they want to. As long as the public toggle is on, anyone on the internet with the public link can view the page, whether you shared directly with them or not.
Also, be aware that anyone who can view your internal page can copy that page’s public link and share it with anyone on the internet.
Make sure to share the correct link
You need the actual public link from the page’s Share window or else anyone on the internet you share with won’t be able to view the content. The link in your browser is not the public link.
To preview what public link visitors will see:
Copy the page’s public link.
Open a new tab in your browser.
Paste the public link in the new tab.
Or you can copy the public link, log out of your Atlassian account, and paste the public link in any browser tab.
Note: Custom emojis won’t display correctly in the public version of the page. They will all display as text their custom emoji name framed with two colons, such as :dancingbird:
To turn off a public link:
Go to the page you want a public link for.
Open Share in the top right of the page.
Turn off the public link toggle at the bottom of the Share window.
Anyone on the internet who still has the page’s public link is blocked from viewing the content as long as the page’s public link toggle is off.
What to know when sharing public links
Always use caution when sharing content externally. Here are a few key points to know for using public links safely.
Internal view restrictions don’t apply
As long as your admins allow you to use public links, a public link will just work, regardless of any view restrictions. Public links ignore any restrictions to who can access a parent page, the space, and the site itself.
No matter who is restricted from viewing the internal page, anyone on the internet who you share the public link with will be able to view the public version of the page.
Public pages hide sensitive information
Visitors to a public page will see a safe, view-only version of the page that was shared which hides any content outside of the shared page (page tree, macros, etc.) and locks most Confluence functionality.
To learn more about what public page visitors can see, go to the “What is hidden from visitors to public pages” section of How secure are public links?
Public links don’t share branches of the content tree
Each public link corresponds to one page only. If you turn on and share a public link for a page that has any child pages, the public link will only reveal the parent page, not any of the child pages. To share the child pages too, you’ll need to turn on their public links and share each of them individually.
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