How to share AI prompts: links, images, and privacy
AI PromptShot has no accounts, and most of its ways to share a prompt upload nothing at all. Here's exactly what happens when you use Copy Share Link, Share, Download PNG, Copy Image, or Publish — what each one means for your prompt's privacy, and which one fits the prompt you're sharing.
Create a PromptShotWhat a share link actually contains
When you click Copy Share Link, PromptShot doesn't send anything to a server. It takes your prompt text along with the selected platform, theme, and size, turns that into JSON, and encodes it as a URL-safe base64 string in a single parameter after the # in the link. That string is appended to the page URL — nothing more.
When someone opens the link, the same page loads and reads that parameter straight out of the URL, decodes it back into your prompt, platform, theme, and size, and restores the editor to match. There is no lookup, no database row, and no ID pointing at storage somewhere — the link is the data.
What stays private, and what doesn't
While you're editing, your prompt never leaves your browser. PromptShot makes no network request with your prompt text unless you click Save PromptShot, which is the one button that sends it anywhere.
A share link changes that. Because the full prompt is encoded directly in the URL, anyone who has the link can read the prompt inside it, and so can anything that logs URLs — browser history, a chat app's link preview, an analytics tool on a page you paste the link into. Treat a share link the same way you'd treat pasting the raw prompt text: fine for something you're happy to have read, not the place for anything sensitive.
If you want the visual without exposing the prompt as re-editable text, use Download PNG or Copy Image instead — the image is flattened pixels, not encoded text, so it doesn't carry the prompt back out in a reversible form.
Five ways to get a PromptShot out of the editor
| Action | What it produces | Sends anything to a server? |
|---|---|---|
| Copy Share Link | A URL that reopens this exact PromptShot | No — the prompt is encoded in the URL |
| Share | Opens your device's native share sheet with the PNG (and the link, if supported) | No |
| Download PNG | A PNG image file saved to your device | No |
| Copy Image | The PNG placed on your clipboard, ready to paste | No |
| Save, then Publish | A public page at aipromptshot.com/p/… | Yes — Save stores it privately, Publish makes that page public |
Share uses the browser's Web Share API. It isn't supported in every browser — where it isn't, the button tells you so and suggests downloading the PNG instead. Copy Image depends on your browser supporting image writes to the clipboard; where it doesn't, PromptShot tells you to download instead of failing silently.
Saving and publishing
Save and Publish are the steps that put a PromptShot on our server, and they are separate on purpose. Both can be undone later from the same browser.
Save PromptShot stores the PromptShot — its prompt, settings, and the PNG your browser rendered — privately. A saved PromptShot has no web address. Nobody can visit it, it is not listed anywhere, and it is not linked to you: we store no account, name, or email, because there are none.
Publish is a second, separate click. It gives that one PromptShot a public page at a URL like aipromptshot.com/p/…, where anyone with the link can read the prompt, copy it, share the page, or remix it in the editor. Saving never publishes on its own, and there is no public link until you publish.
Published pages ask search engines not to index them, so they are for sending to people rather than for ranking. Publishing is not permanent. From the browser you saved it in, Unpublish takes the public page down straight away and keeps the PromptShot saved privately, and Delete removes it and its image for good. No account is needed — that browser holds the access. If you no longer have it, email contact@aipromptshot.com to have the PromptShot removed. The Privacy Policy explains how this works.
The rule of thumb is the same as for a share link: publish a prompt only if you would be comfortable posting the prompt text publicly.
What happens when someone opens your link
Opening a valid share link restores the prompt text, platform, theme, and size, and shows a short confirmation that the PromptShot was restored from a shared link. If the link is malformed or was edited by hand, PromptShot can't decode it — it falls back to a blank editor and says so, rather than showing a broken or partial prompt.
The link-length limit
Because the entire prompt lives inside the URL, very long prompts produce very long links. PromptShot caps share links at 8,000 characters. Past that, Copy Share Link won't generate a link at all — it tells you the prompt is too long and points you to Download PNG or Copy Prompt instead, both of which have no such limit.
Which option to use
- Posting a prompt as a visual — a social post, a slide, a newsletter: use Download PNG or Copy Image. The image shows every word but carries no re-editable text. Sharing an AI prompt as an image covers templates and sizes.
- Handing a teammate a prompt to reuse or edit: use Copy Share Link. It reopens the exact prompt and settings — and anyone with the link can read it.
- Showing a prompt to anyone who wants it: Save, then Publish, for a public page people can open, copy, or remix.
- A prompt with anything private in it — client names, internal URLs, credentials: take those parts out first. An image still shows every word, and a share link or a published page carries the text itself.
For per-tool examples, see ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini prompt screenshots, or Cursor and Codex for coding prompts.