Guide · Updated October 11, 2026 · 6 min read
Gemini Canvas: how to use it, share it, and send it as a real link
The short answer
Gemini Canvas is the editing workspace in Google’s Gemini app: your draft (a document, code, an app or slides) opens in a panel beside the chat, with a live preview for code. To share it, Gemini creates a public link that anyone with the URL can open. To send it privately, with a password and a read signal, copy the HTML out of Canvas and publish it as a page.
How to use it
How to use Gemini Canvas in four steps
Open Canvas
At gemini.google.com, signed in, click Add Files below the text box, select Canvas, then describe what you want. Gemini opens the draft in a panel beside the chat.
Ask for the right shape
Canvas makes documents, code, apps and slides. For something you will send, ask for “a single, self-contained HTML page” and Gemini shows a live preview next to the code.
Edit in place
Ask for changes in the chat and Gemini revises the draft in the panel. Canvas saves changes automatically as you go.
Share or export
Use Share & export to create a public link, export a document to Google Docs, or copy the contents. For a page someone else will open, copy the HTML and publish it.
Where it shines
What Gemini Canvas is good at
Interactive prototypes
Ask for a calculator, a quiz or a small app and Canvas writes the code and shows it running. Quick to iterate on with plain-language requests.
Documents to Google Docs
Long drafts export straight to Google Docs, which suits work that lives in Google Workspace afterwards.
Turning a doc into something else
A Canvas document can become a web page, an infographic, a quiz or an Audio Overview (some of these are not available to users under 18).
Sharing
How Gemini Canvas sharing works
As of October 2026, per Google’s help, sharing works like this:
- It is a public link. Share & export, then Share, creates a
g.co/gemini/sharelink. Anyone with the link can open it, even if you did not send it to them. - It is a snapshot. The shared page shows the chat, including Canvas documents, as it was when you made the link. Later edits do not appear on it.
- Apps share their data. For an app built in Canvas, anyone with the public link can view and edit data associated with the app.
- Viewers can copy it. Someone who opens your link can make their own editable copy of the Canvas.
- It opens on the web. Shared links open only at gemini.google.com; the Gemini mobile app cannot open shared Canvas content.
- You can delete it. Settings & help, then Your public links. Workspace administrators can switch sharing off for an organization.
That is a good fit for showing a friend or a colleague what you made. It is a poor fit for a proposal, a client report or anything with a client’s name on it: there is no password, you cannot see whether it was opened, and fixing a typo means sending a new link.
The missing step
Send a Canvas page as an unlisted, tracked link
Ask Gemini to keep the page in one self-contained HTML file, copy the code, and paste it into Pagelive. You get a link in seconds. It is noindex by default, so it stays out of search. On Solo and Team you can add a password and see each open with reading time; on every plan, publishing a new version keeps the same link, so the client always sees the current page. Free for 2 public pages.
Working in ChatGPT instead? Same gap, same fix: see the guide to ChatGPT Canvas. In Claude, the Pagelive connector publishes straight from the conversation.
Frequently asked
Canvas is the workspace in Google’s Gemini app where a draft opens in a panel beside the chat instead of in the reply stream. It creates documents, code, apps and slides, shows a live preview of code it writes, and lets you edit together with Gemini. You need to be signed in to Gemini to use it.
Open the chat, choose Share & export, then Share, and copy the public link (it starts with g.co/gemini/share). Anyone with that link can open it, and for apps anyone with the link can view and edit data associated with the app. Shared links open only on gemini.google.com; the Gemini mobile app cannot open shared Canvas content.
No. A public link shows the chat as it was when you created it, including Canvas documents. Edits you make afterwards do not appear on the shared page; you would need a new link. A Pagelive link works the other way: publish a new version and the same link shows it.
Gemini public links have no password, view tracking or custom domain. To send Canvas output to a client privately, copy the HTML and publish it with Pagelive: noindex by default, a password on Solo and Team, and a signal when it is opened.
At gemini.google.com, open Settings & help, then Your public links, and delete the link (or all of them). Deleting a link does not remove posts where you already shared it. If your account is managed by Google Workspace, an administrator can turn sharing off entirely.
When Canvas has written a web page, open the code view and copy it, or choose Share & export and copy the contents. Ask Gemini to keep everything in one file (styles and scripts inline) so the page works on its own when you publish it.
More on getting a file in front of someone: how to share an HTML file.