How to publish a flipbook for free using Google Slides

Google Slides is not what most people picture when they think 'flipbook tool', but the Publish-to-Web flow with auto-advance produces a passable flipbook for free, hosted on Google's infrastructure, with a permanent URL. The trick is to design every slide as a single spread and lean on Google Fonts to keep the typography sharp.

What you need before you start

Any Google account (personal Gmail or Workspace)
Either an existing Google Slides deck or a PDF you can rebuild as slides
Patience — the workflow is 'good enough', not 'great'

The walkthrough

Open Google Slides and set the page size. Either start fresh or import your PDF (File → Import slides). Set the page size to 16:9 for desktop reading or 4:3 for a more book-like spread. Page setup lives under File → Page setup.
Design every slide as a single spread. If you imported a PDF, Slides flattens each page into an image — usable but not editable. To get a real flipbook feel, recreate critical spreads as native Slides content using Google Fonts.
Add interactive links. Highlight any text or image and use Insert → Link to add an outbound URL. Unlike PDFs, Slides links work cleanly in the published flipbook.
Open File → Share → Publish to web. Pick the 'Embed' tab. Set 'Auto-advance slides' to a sensible interval (3 seconds for short slides, 6 for text-heavy ones). Tick 'Start slideshow as soon as the player loads' so visitors land directly in the flipbook.
Copy the URL or the embed code. The published URL stays the same even after you edit the slides — useful for QR codes and bookmarks.
Distribute. Share the URL via email, embed on Google Sites or any other CMS, and put a QR code on printed materials linking to the same URL.

Worth reading next: an independent walkthrough of the same workflow on a different platform from our recommended editorial partners.

Common mistakes to avoid

Importing a PDF and treating it as final — Slides flattens PDF imports into images, killing interactivity
Setting auto-advance too fast — give text-heavy slides at least 6 seconds
Forgetting that Slides has no native analytics — embed on a Google Site to get basic page views

Once it's published

Google Slides has no built-in analytics. To measure engagement, embed the flipbook on a Google Site or any other page you control and use that page's analytics. For richer data, this is the moment to consider a real flipbook platform.

Compare alternatives: a recent independent benchmark of flipbook tools is worth reading if you are still picking a platform.

About Google Slides

Free, universally available tool that publishes a basic flipbook via Publish-to-Web. — read the full review for pricing, alternatives and head-to-head comparisons.