Expiry and retention
How long documents stay accessible, the per-plan expiry caps, and how the cleanup sweep removes them.
Every document has an expiry instant, after which it is removed from access and deleted. Expiry is a control you set from Share Settings, and your plan determines both the maximum window you can set and whether you can turn expiry off entirely.
Setting document expiry
Every upload is created with a starting expiry, which you then change from Share Settings on the Configure & Share screen. The starting values are:
| How the document was created | Starting expiry |
|---|---|
| Uploaded while signed in on Free | 1 hour |
| Uploaded while signed in on Basic or Pro | 24 hours |
| Uploaded anonymously (no account) | 365 days |
Change the expiry by picking a new window from the expiry selector and applying it; the new window is measured from the moment you apply it, not from upload. The selector offers 1 hour, 12 hours, 24 hours and 7 days on Free, adds 30 days and 365 days on Basic, and adds Never on Pro.
Once the expiry instant passes, the document is inaccessible immediately, even if the cleanup process has not yet run.
Per-tier expiry limits
| Tier | Maximum expiry window | Never-expire option |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 7 days | No |
| Basic | 365 days (1 year) | No |
| Pro | Unlimited | Yes |
Free and Basic plans limit how far into the future you can schedule an expiry. An expiry beyond your plan's cap is rejected with HTTP 403. Pro plans have no cap and can set documents to never expire, which stores no expiry at all and exempts the document from the cleanup sweep.
Automatic cleanup
A background process runs every 60 seconds to remove expired documents from disk and the database. A document that has passed its expiry instant returns HTTP 410 (Gone) on any download request immediately—it does not wait for the next cleanup cycle. Because the cleanup runs periodically, an expired document's database row can survive up to a minute, so every write lane refuses expired documents with 410 as well: the settings endpoint (on all of its authentication lanes), the download-permission toggle, the viewer-mode endpoint, and content replacement. Without those refusals, a write inside that window could push the expiry into the future and resurrect a link that had already answered 410 to its readers.
Extending the expiry of a document that has not yet lapsed is the supported flow and is not affected—the refusal applies only to documents that are already past their expiry instant.
Anonymous uploads and expiry
Unclaimed anonymous documents (uploaded without an account or shared before signing up) are retained for 365 days. This window starts from the document's creation and allows shared links to remain live even after the uploading session ends. When you claim an anonymous document by signing up or logging in, the document's existing expiry is preserved—claiming neither resets nor shortens it, so a link you have already shared does not die early. Once claimed, you change the expiry from Share Settings like any other document, subject to your plan's cap.
See Anonymous uploads and claiming for details on how claiming works.
Expiry when restoring from trash
When you restore a document from trash, its expiry date may be re-capped based on your current plan:
- Free tier: Restored documents are re-capped to 7 days from now, whenever the stored expiry is absent, further out than 7 days, or already lapsed.
- Basic tier: The same, re-capped to 365 days from now.
- Pro tier: Restored documents keep their stored expiry. If that expiry lapsed while the document sat in trash, it is cleared instead—the restored document never expires until you set a new expiry.
The lapsed-expiry re-basing matters because the cleanup sweep deliberately skips trashed documents, so a stored expiry can pass while a document is in the trash. Without the re-base, the restore would succeed and the next sweep would delete the document moments later, with the expired-document 410 on the settings endpoint blocking any rescue in between.
If your plan has changed since the document was trashed, the new tier's cap applies—a never-expiring document restored on Free comes back with a 7-day expiry.
See Trash and recovery for more details on the restore process.
Expiry vs. view limits
Expiry and view limits are separate controls:
- Expiry: Time-based. The document becomes inaccessible after a specific date and time, regardless of how many times it has been viewed.
- View limit: Count-based. The document becomes inaccessible after a set number of viewing sessions have been served, regardless of time.
Both can be combined on the same document. See Self-destructing links for details on view limits.
Plans and limits
For an overview of your plan's capabilities, see Plans and limits.