How to Password-Protect a Paste

The classic way to "protect" a paste is to share a link and a password in two separate messages. It works, but it is easy to mess up: the password ends up in the same chat thread, gets forwarded along with the link, or the recipient just guesses it is optional and skips it.

Two better options

Unlisted visibility keeps a paste off search and off the public search page, but the link itself still opens it directly - fine for low-stakes sharing where you trust the link will not leak.

A paywalled paste is stronger: instead of a password, the content stays fully locked (title and short description only) until the viewer pays. There is nothing to forward accidentally, because access is not a shared secret - it is a transaction tied to the link itself.

• Use unlisted for internal notes, temporary logs, or anything low-risk.
• Use a paywall when you want to control access AND you are comfortable charging even a small amount for it.
• Use private + an account when only specific logged-in users should ever see it.

None of these replace end-to-end encryption if you need to guarantee nobody but the recipient can ever read the content - for that, a tool built around client-side encryption is the right choice. For everyday sharing where "do not make this trivially discoverable" is the goal, unlisted or paywalled links are usually enough.

You can set visibility and pricing on any paste from the create page - see our guide on creating a paste to get started.