Pastebin.ai turns exact text into a focused link without requiring an account. The controls below explain what changes in storage, who can open a paste, how long it remains available, and which workspace features become available after sign-in.
Create and read without friction
The editor accepts up to 1 MB of UTF-8 text and supports more than 60 syntax modes. Local language suggestions help choose a readable mode without silently changing the selection. A recipient gets line and range links, in-paste search, copy, download, QR sharing, wrapping controls, and a raw endpoint when the paste is eligible for machine-readable access.
The editor checks several common credential shapes locally before upload and can build a redacted preview. That best-effort scan is a review aid, not proof that text is safe. Anonymous creation remains a complete workflow, while signed-in ownership adds a durable management dashboard.
Choose discovery, access, and storage separately
Unlisted visibility removes a paste from public discovery but leaves the random URL usable. A password adds an application access check. Owner-only visibility requires the creating Google account. Browser encryption uses AES-256-GCM before upload so storage receives ciphertext rather than readable text.
These controls are deliberately named by what they do. None can prevent a recipient from copying readable content, and a secret manager remains the correct home for production credentials and recovery material.
Practical next step: Security model - Compare the precise boundary of each protection.
Set retention for the task
Expiration ranges from ten minutes to permanent availability. A unique-view limit can end access after 1 to 1,000 counted viewers, with repeat requests from the same viewer counted once within 24 hours. Burn-after-read makes a paste unavailable after one deliberate content retrieval and overrides the view limit.
These controls reduce later availability at the source link. They cannot recall downloads, screenshots, chat previews, QR scans, or other independent copies.
Manage recurring work
Google sign-in adds editing, revision comparison and restoration, deletion, categories, tags, folders, owner-only visibility, and revocable API tokens. Each saved edit records a revision snapshot. Open any snapshot to inspect its metadata and unified text diff before restoring it as a new current version. Organization metadata stays private to the account and does not make a paste discoverable.
Feature
| Feature | What it changes | Practical meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Unlisted visibility | Discovery | Omitted from Explore; anyone with the URL can open it. |
| Password protection | Access | Requires the link and password; storage remains server-readable. |
| Browser encryption | Storage | Uploads ciphertext; the fragment key stays in the complete URL. |
| Expiration | Retention | Ends future access after the selected deadline. |
| Unique-view limit | Retention | Ends future access after the selected counted-view threshold. |
| Burn-after-read | Retention | Ends access after one deliberate retrieval and overrides a view limit. |
| Local secret scanner | Pre-share review | Flags common credential shapes in the browser without uploading the scan. |
| Owner workspace | Management | Adds edits, revision comparison and restoration, folders, tags, deletion, and API tokens. |