How to give a free PDF to your Instagram followers
You can give Instagram followers a free PDF three ways: a bio link to the file, a bio link to a page that asks for an email first, or an automatic DM to everyone who comments a keyword. Only the email-gated page gets their address. On Pullsy Store the first two are free; comment-to-DM needs the ₹1,299-a-month Store plan.
Updated 1 October 2026
A free PDF — a checklist, a recipe card, a budget template — is the first product most Indian creators make. How you hand it over decides what you get back for it: nothing, an email address, or a conversation in your DMs.
Which route should you use?
| Route | What it costs | Do you get their email? | Setup | Pullsy Store plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bio link straight to the file — a Google Drive or Dropbox link | ₹0 | No. You never learn who downloaded it | A few minutes | Not needed, or a Link product on Free |
| Email-gated download — a page that asks for a name and an email, then hands over the file | ₹0 on Free, for files up to 10MB | Yes, for every download | About fifteen minutes for a first storefront | Free: up to 5 products on your page and 5 landing pages |
| Comment-to-DM — someone comments a keyword and the link arrives in their DMs | ₹1,299 a month per storefront, after a 14-day trial on your first | Only if the DM links to an email-gated page | One rule per post, once your Instagram is connected | Store plan only — not on Free |
The short version: if you only want the PDF out of the door, a bio link is fine. If you want to be able to reach those people again, gate it behind an email. If your posts get a lot of comments asking for the link, comment-to-DM saves them the trip to your bio — and pointing that DM at the email-gated page gets you both.
Route 1: a bio link straight to the file
Upload the PDF to Google Drive or Dropbox, set sharing to anyone with the link, and put the link in your bio or on a link-in-bio page. It costs nothing and takes minutes.
What it gives up: you never know who took it, the link gets forwarded into group chats, and if you move or delete the file every old link breaks. For a one-off giveaway that is a fair trade. For a lead magnet meant to start a relationship, it throws away the relationship.
Route 2: a download that asks for an email first
This is the classic lead magnet. On Pullsy Store it is a Digital download product, and it works on the Free plan:
- Create a storefront and pick your handle. Your page lives at pullsy.store/@your-handle, and the handle cannot be changed later.
- Add a Digital download under My store → Store and upload the PDF. Free storefronts take files up to 10MB; the Store plan takes up to 100MB. Most PDFs are well under 10MB once exported for screens rather than print.
- Publish it. A visitor leaves their name and email and gets the file, and an email with a link back to their download, so they can find it again on another device.
- Put the link where people will see it: your storefront address in your bio, or the product's own address — a landing page with no row on your storefront — in a single post or story.
- Read the list in Customers. Every address is there, and you can download it as a CSV for whatever email tool you use.
Getting started with Pullsy Store walks through the screens.
Route 3: DM the PDF to everyone who comments
You write a post saying "comment GUIDE and I'll DM it to you", and a tool watches the comments and sends the link to each person who used the word. Instagram calls this a private reply, and its rules shape how every tool does it: one private reply per comment, sent within seven days of the comment, from an Instagram professional account. Instagram DM automation limits sets out Meta's rules with the links.
On Pullsy Store it is Auto-DM, on the Store plan. It sends up to 100 DMs an hour from each connected Instagram account; when a post gets more comments than that, the rest wait in a queue and go out in later hours, inside Meta's seven-day window, rather than being dropped. The DM can carry a link you paste or a file you upload.
- One DM per person per rule. By default someone who comments five times gets one DM in seven days, not five.
- An optional follow-first step. The DM can ask them to follow you and tap a button before the link arrives. After three taps without a follow the link goes anyway — the step is there to earn follows, not to withhold a free PDF.
- Links that resist casual forwarding. Each person's link expires after seven days and five opens by default, so a link pasted into a group chat soon stops working.
- A keyword that matches loosely. "guide", "Guide please" and "GUIDE 🙏" all match GUIDE. A whole-word setting stops it firing on "misguided".
Worth asking before you move 🤔
What is the cheapest way to give away a PDF on Instagram?
A bio link to the file on Google Drive costs nothing. An email-gated download on Pullsy Store's Free plan also costs nothing and gets you the email of everyone who takes it, which is usually worth the extra fifteen minutes of setup.
Can I send a PDF automatically to everyone who comments on my post?
Yes, with a comment-to-DM tool on an Instagram professional account. Instagram allows one private reply per comment, within seven days. On Pullsy Store this is Auto-DM on the Store plan, ₹1,299 a month per storefront, with a 14-day trial on your first storefront.
Does comment-to-DM get me the commenter's email?
No. Instagram never shares a follower's email address with you. To get it, make the DM link to a page that asks for a name and email before the download, such as a Pullsy Store digital download.
How big can the PDF be?
On Pullsy Store, up to 10MB on the Free plan and up to 100MB on the Store plan. A PDF exported for screens rather than print is usually a few megabytes, so most lead magnets fit on Free.
Should I make people follow me before they get the PDF?
It can earn follows, and it adds a step that loses some people. Pullsy Store's follow-first step asks once and sends the link anyway after three taps, so nobody who is genuinely trying ends up without it.
Read next 👀
How to collect email addresses from your Instagram followers
A five-step funnel for Indian creators: a reason to sign up, one short form, the bio link, comment-to-DM and an exportable list, with what each step costs.
Instagram DM automation limits: what Meta allows, and what tools choose
The limits Meta documents for automated Instagram DMs — one private reply per comment, 7 days, 750 an hour — kept apart from the caps tools set themselves.
How to sell digital products on Instagram in India
One bio link, a page that takes UPI, and the three places a sale breaks. A guide for Indian creators selling templates and guides; Pullsy Store itself takes no payments yet.
Pricing
Free for good with 5 products, or ₹1,299 a month for unlimited products, bigger files, storefront analytics and Instagram auto-DM. Billed per storefront; the first storefront on an account gets 14 days of the Store plan free.
Your audience, one link away.
Open your storeFree forever, or ₹1,299 a month for the full plan. Takes no payments yet.