How to Sign a Google Doc: Three Ways to Add a Signature

“Signing a Google Doc” covers two different jobs: putting your own signature on a document, and getting someone else’s onto it. Google Docs can do both, and what is left behind afterwards differs a great deal. One way leaves a picture. One is a real signing feature that Google includes only in certain plans. The third works from any Google account.

Option 1: Draw or insert a picture of your signature

The fastest way to add your own signature, and it works on every Google account.

To draw it:

1. Click where the signature belongs and go to Insert → Drawing → New.
2. In the drawing window, open the line tool and choose Scribble. Google’s instruction for it is “Click to start, then drag across the canvas.”
3. Sign with your mouse or trackpad, then click Save and close. The drawing lands in the document as an image.
4. Click the drawing to select it: drag a corner to resize it, and a small toolbar appears underneath. Open Wrap text options in that toolbar, choose In front of text, and drag the drawing onto the signature line. Google notes that the layout options “aren’t available in documents that are in pageless format.”

To insert a picture instead, sign a sheet of paper and photograph it — or draw or type one with our free signature generator, which downloads a transparent PNG — then use Insert → Image → Upload from computer.

On a phone the route is different. Google documents Insert → Drawing for computers. For Android it describes markups instead: tap Insert → Add markups, pick the Pen, and “Draw on the document to add a markup.” The same help page says “This feature is currently available for Android devices”, and its iPhone and iPad version covers only hiding and deleting markups. On an iPhone or iPad, insert a picture of your signature with Insert → Image. A markup is an annotation rather than part of the text: the same page explains how to hide all markups and how to delete one.

This takes a minute and is fine for a low-stakes document. Understand what it is: a picture in an editable file. Anyone with edit access can move it, copy it into another document or delete it. The only trace of who added it is the document’s version history, and Google’s help is plain about the limits of that record: “To browse earlier versions of a file, you need permission to edit that file”, and the file’s owner can remove it, with the warning that “Deleting version history is permanent and cannot be undone.” None of it is in the PDF you download and send.

Option 2: Use Google’s own eSignature

Google Docs has a real signing feature built in. Whether you have it depends on your plan.

Who has it. According to Google’s help page, “The eSignature feature for Google Docs and PDFs is available to” two groups: “Workspace Individual accounts”, and “These Workspace plans when your administrator enables the feature”:

• “Business Standard and Plus”
• “Enterprise Starter, Standard, and Plus”
• “Enterprise Essentials and Enterprise Essentials Plus”
• “Education Plus users”

For everyone else the same page says: “If you don’t have a Workspace subscription plan, you can gain access to this feature today. Sign up for a Workspace Individual plan.” The list does not name Business Starter, and it does not name a free personal account.

We tried it on a Google Workspace account whose plan is not on that list (13 October 2026). Tools → eSignature was still in the menu, but choosing it brought up a notice headed “Premium feature”: “You can create your agreement now, but you need an eligible Google Workspace plan to send the eSignature request.” We could place signature fields in the document; the panel had no button for sending the request.

How to send a request. Google’s steps, in short:

1. Open Tools → eSignature. A side panel opens.
2. Drag fields onto the page — Signature, Initials, Name, Text field or Date signed — and, with more than one signer, assign each field to the person who fills it.
3. Click Request signature, give the PDF a title and enter each signer’s email address.

At that point, Google says, “A PDF is made from your document and shared with the signers. They can sign the form, but won’t be able to make any other edits or change who has access to the file.” Your original document stays editable; the PDF is locked.

What the signer sees. “An email notification with a link to the document is sent to the signers.” They open it and click the coloured fields that are theirs, and a dialog offers two ways to make the signature: Type — “The system will automatically create a signature for you in a standard style” — or Draw — “Use your mouse, trackpad, or touchscreen to draw your actual signature.” Then Adopt and sign, Mark Complete, and, after reviewing Google’s terms, Agree & Continue.

What comes back. This is what separates it from Option 1. In Google’s words: “After all signers sign the document, a final .pdf is generated. The end of the .pdf contains an audit trail page.” That page holds “a log of various events that occurred during the eSignature request lifecycle with timestamps” — Google lists “eSignature requested”, “eSignature signed” and “eSignature completion” — together with “Identifying information for the requester and signers such as their email and name”. Google’s Workspace page adds that the tool “utilizes certificates issued by a certificate authority that is an approved member of the Adobe Approved Trust List (AATL) program.”

The limits Google states. “You can add up to 10 signers to an eSignature request.” “You can add a maximum of 200 fields of any type per document.” And subscribers on Workspace Individual are bound by Google’s eSignature Additional Terms of Service, which include: “You may only use eSignature to transact with counterparties in the same legal jurisdiction as you.”

If your plan is on Google’s list and those limits suit the document, this is a sound way to get a Google Doc signed, and it adds nothing to your bill: Google describes it as “available at no cost for users on the following plans”.

Option 3: Send the Google Doc for signature with an e-signature tool

The route for everyone that list leaves out, and for documents that need more than Google’s five field types or ten signers.

1. In Google Docs, choose File → Download and pick the PDF format. A PDF keeps the document’s layout.
2. Upload the PDF to the e-signature tool.
3. Add each signer by name and email address.
4. Place the fields each of them fills — signature, date, initials — and send.
5. Each signer gets an email with a link and signs in their browser, on a laptop or a phone.
6. When everyone has signed, every party gets the completed PDF with its audit trail.

With Signatura you can skip the download. The upload dialog has a Google Drive tab: pick the document in Google’s own file picker and a Google Doc arrives already converted to PDF. Signatura is given access to the file you pick, not to the rest of your Drive. Signers never need an account — not ours, and not a Google one — and are never charged. Signing order, reminders and what to do about a wrong email address are covered in How to send a document for someone else to sign; if the only signature needed is your own, the steps are in How to sign a PDF online.

Signatura seals every completed document with a SHA-256 hash and records who signed, when and from where, delivered as a Certificate of Completion — and the file can be re-verified by anyone holding it, without an account. Like Google’s eSignature, it comes with a paid plan: Signatura’s starts with a 14-day free trial that needs no credit card.

What each method can actually prove

US law does not care what a signature looks like. The ESIGN Act defines an electronic signature at 15 U.S.C. § 7006(5) as “an electronic sound, symbol, or process, attached to or logically associated with a contract or other record and executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the record.” A drawing can satisfy that. So can a typed name.

Validity is rarely the question that bites. The question that bites is attribution — can you show it was them? The Uniform Electronic Transactions Act, the state-level counterpart to ESIGN, puts it this way at § 9(a), quoted here from Washington’s enactment: “An electronic record or electronic signature is attributable to a person if it was the act of the person. The act of the person may be shown in any manner, including a showing of the efficacy of any security procedure applied to determine the person to which the electronic record or electronic signature was attributable.”

	Drawing or picture	Google eSignature	E-signature tool
Available on	Any Google account	Workspace Individual and the Workspace plans Google lists	Any Google account; the tool is its own subscription
Record of who signed	None beyond the document’s version history	The signer’s email and name on the audit trail page	Yes
Record of when	None beyond the version history	Timestamps on the audit trail page	Yes, and from where
Built to collect someone else’s signature	No	Yes, up to 10 signers	Yes
What protects the finished file	Nothing — it stays editable	A certificate-based signature, per Google	A tamper-evident seal anyone can re-verify

If a signature is never questioned, all three worked equally well. If it is questioned, a drawing gives you a picture and an edit history that sits in your own Drive. Options 2 and 3 both hand every party a finished PDF with the record attached. We cover what decides the rest in Is a typed or drawn signature legally valid?

So the choice is practical. For your own signature on something low-stakes, Option 1 is enough. When someone else has to sign and your Google plan includes eSignature, Option 2 is already paid for. When it does not — or the document needs more signers, other kinds of fields, or a signer in a different legal jurisdiction while you are on Workspace Individual — use Option 3.

Frequently asked questions

Can I get a free eSignature in Google Docs?

Drawing or inserting a signature, Option 1 above, is free on every Google account. Google’s eSignature feature belongs to particular plans. Its Workspace page says it is “available at no cost for users on the following plans: Business Standard and Plus, Enterprise Starter, Standard and Plus, Enterprise Essentials and Enterprise Essentials Plus, and Education Plus”, and its help page adds Workspace Individual. For accounts outside that list, Google’s own answer is “Sign up for a Workspace Individual plan”, which it offers with a 14-day trial. Dedicated e-signature tools are subscriptions too; Signatura’s 14-day free trial needs no credit card.

How do I enable eSignature in Google Docs?

There is nothing to switch on inside a document: on an eligible account it sits under Tools → eSignature. In a Workspace organisation an administrator controls it. Google’s admin help says “eSignature is turned on for all users by default”, and an administrator can turn it off in the Admin console under Apps → Google Workspace → Drive and Docs → eSignature. If it is missing from your account, Google’s advice is that “you can request it from your organization’s administrator.” If you have only just upgraded, Google says “it can take a few minutes for the feature to become fully available.”

How do I add a handwritten signature to a Google Doc?

On a computer, go to Insert → Drawing → New, choose Scribble from the line tool, sign with the mouse or trackpad, and click Save and close. Or sign paper, photograph it and add it with Insert → Image. Our free signature generator makes a transparent PNG if you would rather not use paper. Either way the result is a picture of a signature, with no record of who added it beyond the document’s own edit history.

How do I sign a Google Doc on an iPhone or Android phone?

If you were sent a signature request — Google’s or any e-signature tool’s — open the link in the email and sign in the phone’s browser; Google’s Workspace page describes signing “right from your mobile device”. To add your own signature inside the Docs app, Android has markups: Insert → Add markups, then draw with the Pen. Google’s help says markups are “currently available for Android devices”, so on an iPhone or iPad use Insert → Image to add a picture of your signature.

Does Google Docs have a signature font?

Google’s help describes one built-in signature style, inside an eSignature request: choose Type and “The system will automatically create a signature for you in a standard style.” In an ordinary document you can set your typed name in a handwriting-style font — Google’s help says the font dialog can be searched by type and gives “script” as an example — and a typed name can be a valid signature. It is also text that anyone can retype. See Is a typed or drawn signature legally valid?

Is a signature in a Google Doc legally binding?

It can be. ESIGN turns on intent to sign, not on appearance or technology, so a drawn signature, a typed name and a signature made through an eSignature request can all qualify. Whether a particular signature is enforceable depends on intent, consent and attribution — see Are electronic signatures legally binding?

Does the other person need a Google account to sign?

For Google’s eSignature, Google’s pages stop short of a one-line answer. Its announcement of the feature lists “the ability to request an eSignature from non-Gmail users”, and its eSignature terms say “the person who receives your eSignature link may need to agree to the Google Terms of Service and additional terms for eSignature signers before signing your document.” With most e-signature tools, Signatura included, the signer needs only the link in the email: no account of any kind, and no charge.

Can I sign a Google Doc without an add-on?

Yes. None of the three options here installs anything into Google Docs. Options 1 and 2 are built into Docs, and Option 3 works on a PDF of the document, downloaded or imported from Drive, rather than through an add-on.

How can I request signatures on a PDF in Google Drive?

Google’s eSignature also starts from a PDF, on the same plans. Its steps are to open the PDF in Drive “in viewing mode” and then “At the top right, click Menu” and choose eSignature. Without one of those plans, upload the PDF to an e-signature tool instead — the steps are in How to sign a PDF online.

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Sources: Google, Send signature requests & sign documents with eSignature — who is eligible, the request and signing steps, the five field types, the 10-signer and 200-field limits, and the audit trail page · Google Workspace, Electronic Signature for Online Documents — the no-cost plan list, signing on a mobile device, and the AATL certificate statement · Google, Request access to the eSignature feature in Google Workspace — asking an administrator · Google Workspace Admin Help, Turn eSignature on or off for users — on by default, and where an administrator switches it off · Google, eSignature Additional Terms of Service for Workspace Individual, last modified April 30, 2024 — the same-jurisdiction term and the signer’s agreement to Google’s terms · Google Workspace Updates, 7 December 2023 — requests to non-Gmail users · Google, Learn about Google Workspace Individual — the 14-day trial · Google, Learn how to use drawings & markups — Insert → Drawing → New, the Scribble line, and markups on Android · Google Docs Editors Community, Add a signature to a google doc — the Save and close step · Google, Insert or delete images & videos — inserting an image and its layout options · Google, Create, view, or download a file — File → Download · Google, Find what’s changed in a file — version history · Google, Change how paragraphs & fonts look — searching fonts by type · ESIGN Act, 15 U.S.C. § 7006 definitions · UETA § 9 as enacted in Washington, RCW 1.80.080.

Last reviewed October 2026. Google changes plan names, eligibility and menu labels; check Google’s current help pages for your own account. This page describes what published sources say and is not legal advice.

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Ready to try it? Start a free trial of Signatura or read about how we keep documents secure. Have a Word file instead? See How to sign a Word document electronically.