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How to send an encrypted file

Updated September 2026

"Encrypted" gets attached to a lot of file-sharing tools that don't really deliver it -- a zip with a password is not the same thing as end-to-end encryption, and neither is a service that stores your file encrypted but keeps the key for itself. Here's how to send a file that's actually encrypted before it leaves your device, with a key nobody but the recipient ever holds, using Send Shed's Encrypted Share. No software to install, and it's free.

1. Create a free account

Encrypted Share is tied to an account rather than being fully anonymous, because that's what lets you see your sent files in one place and revoke a link early if you need to. Signing up takes an email and a password -- your files stay encrypted either way, account or not.

2. Choose your file

Open Encrypted Share and pick one or more files with the file picker, or drop them straight onto the page. You can also paste a URL instead of uploading from your own device -- Send Shed fetches it and encrypts it entirely in your browser, so the plaintext still never reaches the server. Sending more than one file at once still gives each its own link, plus one combined link that downloads all of them as a .zip.

3. Set an expiry, a download limit, and an optional password

Before you upload, choose how long the link should stay live (1 hour, 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days, or never) and how many times it can be downloaded (unlimited, or a fixed number). Whichever limit is hit first takes the link down -- set both tight for something you only want opened once. You can also add a password as a second layer on top of the encryption key itself, and turn on an email notification so you know the moment the file's been downloaded.

4. Encrypt and upload

Hit "Encrypt & upload." The encryption happens in your browser, using the Web Crypto API and a fresh AES-256-GCM key generated on your device -- by the time anything reaches Send Shed's servers, it's already ciphertext. Nothing readable is ever transmitted or stored.

5. Send the link

Copy the link Send Shed gives you and send it however you normally would -- text, email, Slack, whatever. The decryption key travels inside the link itself, in the part after the # character, and browsers are built to never send that part to any server. The recipient just opens the link in their own browser, which decrypts the file locally; they don't need an account, and there's nothing to install. If you set a password, they'll be asked for that too before the file decrypts.

Why this is different from "password-protecting" a file

Zipping a file with a password is a common stand-in for encryption, but the password is usually the only thing standing between an attacker and the contents, and many zip encryption schemes have known weaknesses. Encrypted Share's key is a full AES-256 key generated fresh for each file, not a password someone has to remember or guess -- an optional password is an additional layer on top of that key, not a replacement for one. For the full distinction between "encrypted at rest" and genuine zero-knowledge encryption, see our zero-knowledge encryption explainer.