Paperlink records every interaction with your shared documents and surfaces that data in the analytics panel. You can see exactly who opened a link, where they accessed it from, how long they stayed, and which pages they read — without asking them to report back to you.Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://developers.paperlink.online/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
Where to find analytics
Analytics are available at two levels, depending on how you want to slice the data. File-level analytics show combined data across all sharing links for a document. Open any document from Shared Documents in the sidebar to see this view. Use it to understand overall engagement with the document regardless of which link a viewer used. Link-level analytics show data for a single sharing link only. Open a document, then click on a specific link to see its analytics in isolation. This is useful when you have sent the same document to different audiences — for example, one link for prospective clients and another for internal review — and want to keep the numbers separate.Summary metrics
The top of the analytics panel shows four summary cards that give you a snapshot of engagement at a glance.| Metric | What it measures |
|---|---|
| Views | Total times the document was opened. The same viewer opening the link three times counts as three views. |
| Unique Visitors | Number of distinct people who viewed the document, after deduplication by email, login, or hashed IP. |
| Average Duration | Average time viewers spent with the document open, shown in minutes and seconds (for example, “2m 30s”). Only sessions with a recorded duration are included. |
| Downloads | Total times viewers downloaded the file. This card only appears when downloads are enabled on the link. |
Viewer details table
Below the summary cards, the analytics panel lists every individual view session. Each row in the table represents one visit.| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| The viewer’s email address, if the link requires email verification or login | |
| Country | Where the viewer accessed from, detected by IP geolocation |
| Device | Desktop, mobile, or tablet |
| Duration | Total time the document was open during that session |
| Pages | Number of pages viewed out of the total (for example, “3 of 10”) |
| Downloaded | Whether the viewer saved the file during this session |
| Date | When the view occurred |
If a link does not require email verification, viewers appear with their country and device information only. Enable email verification on the link to see each viewer’s identity in the table.
Multiple sessions from the same viewer
When a viewer returns to a document, Paperlink creates a new row in the table for each visit. The Unique Visitors count stays the same — the returning viewer is still one person — but the Views count increases. This lets you see how many times someone came back without inflating your unique audience count. Each session row shows its own duration, pages viewed, and download status, so you can see whether a returning visitor read more deeply on a second visit than on their first.Folder analytics
When you share a folder (data room), Paperlink aggregates analytics across every document inside it.View top-level metrics
The summary cards at the top show total views and unique visitors across all files in the folder.
Review per-document breakdown
Below the summary, each file in the folder is listed with its own views, unique visitors, average duration, and download count.
How deduplication works
When the same person opens a document multiple times, Paperlink counts them as one unique visitor using a priority-based approach:- Email address - if the viewer entered their email (via an email gate or by logging in), Paperlink uses that as the primary identifier. Two sessions with the same email are always the same person.
- Login session - if a viewer is logged into a Paperlink account, their account identity is used.
- Hashed IP address - for anonymous viewers who did not provide an email, Paperlink uses a hashed IP address as a fallback. This means two anonymous viewers on the same network could occasionally be counted as one, but it prevents overcounting from a single person refreshing the page.
Hashed IP deduplication is a best-effort estimate for anonymous viewers. For accurate identity tracking, enable email verification on your sharing links.
Related pages
Page-level engagement
See time per page, heatmaps, and completion rates to understand which parts of your document hold attention
Slack notifications
Get a Slack alert the moment someone opens a document, downloads a file, or signs an agreement
Create a sharing link
Set up links with access controls — email gate, password, NDA, and expiration — that feed into analytics
Manage link settings
Enable email verification, downloads, and other controls that affect what analytics data you collect