Gemini Canvas built you a page, a calculator, a quiz or a small app, and now someone else has to use it. There are two ways out: Gemini's own public link, which keeps everything inside Gemini, or taking the code and hosting it as a file at a link you control. Which one fits depends on who opens it and what they type into it. Facts about Gemini below come from Google's Gemini Apps Help, read on 2 November 2026.
How do you share a Gemini Canvas with Gemini's own link?
In the Canvas panel, open Share & export at the top right, choose Share, then Copy link. Google's help page says the link opens on gemini.google.com and that shared Canvas content cannot be opened in the Gemini mobile app. Before you share an app, Gemini shows you an app info screen to review.
The person who opens it can press Copy Canvas to make their own copy and keep editing it in their Gemini. Google says copying and editing shared content is not available to users under 18.
On a Google Workspace account, public link sharing for Gemini chats is off by default and an admin turns it on, per Google's Workspace Updates post of 4 March 2026. Workspace users can also share canvases through Google Drive's sharing rules.
Where does the data go in a shared Canvas app?
This is the part to read before you send an app to a client or a group. Google's Canvas safety page says that when an app needs to keep data, Gemini creates a Firestore database for it. In an app built for many users, the data is in a public database that anyone with the public link can see or edit. The help page puts it the same way: anyone with the public link can view and edit data associated with the app.
So a sign-up sheet or a feedback form built in Canvas and shared by link is a shared notebook, not an inbox: every visitor can read what the others typed, and change it. That is fine for a team scoreboard. It is wrong for anything with emails, phone numbers or answers people expect only you to see.
Google's Privacy Hub adds that once someone shares data with a Canvas app, they cannot delete it; the app creator can. None of the pages we read say how you, as the creator, review or export what people submitted.
How do you get the code out of Gemini Canvas?
For an app, press Code at the top right of the Canvas panel to open the code view, then copy all of it. Google's page lists exports for documents (Docs, Slides, PDF, Colab) but no download button for an app's HTML, so copying from the code view is the way.
Before you copy, ask Gemini for a file that works on its own:
Rewrite this as one self-contained HTML file: all CSS in a style tag, all JavaScript in a script tag, no build step, no React or JSX, no external files except fonts. Keep forms as plain <form> elements with a name on every field.
Paste the result into a plain-text editor and save it as page.html. Open it in your browser once to check it looks right. If the app calls Gemini's AI from inside the page, that part only runs inside Canvas; ask Gemini to take it out or keep that app in Gemini.
Where should you host a Gemini Canvas app? 4 options ranked
Hostus is first because it is the option we recommend when the page has a reader who matters: a client, a team, a group that fills something in. The rest follow with the case where each is the right pick.
1. Hostus. A host for pages your AI made, built around the person who receives them. Drop the HTML file on hostus.io and it is live at https://your-slug.hostus.page with SSL; switch it to Public in the dashboard and the reader needs no account and can open it on any phone. Any form with named fields stores each response in an inbox in your Hostus dashboard and emails you, with no backend and no setup, and responses are private to you by default. If the app has to keep shared data (a scoreboard, a list), the page can use hostus.data, and you choose who sees what: everyone (the default, where every reader reads and writes), each reader only their own records, or readers read and only you write. Fix the page and upload it again, and the link stays the same, with recent versions you can restore. Set it to Public (noindex), Private (invite-only) or Email-gated, and see how many people opened it and which sections they read, with names when it is Email-gated. Free: 20 documents, 2 MB in total (HTML and media together), 100 form responses a month. Paid: $9.99 a month or $49.99 a year.
2. Keep Gemini's link. Pick it when the readers already use Gemini, nobody types anything private into the app, and you want them to remix it with Copy Canvas.
3. Netlify Drop or GitHub Pages. Pick one for a public page with no form, or when you want your own domain for free (GitHub Pages). Forms need extra setup or another service.
4. CodePen. Pick it when you are showing the code as much as the result. CodePen's docs say it strips form submissions, so a form will not work there.
Which option does what?
| Option | Reader needs | Form answers | Who sees typed data | Same link after edits | Who opened it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hostus | A browser, any device | Inbox on the page plus an email to you | Form answers: only you, unless a field is marked public. hostus.data: you pick the mode; the default lets every reader see and edit | Yes, with version history | Counts and sections; names when Email-gated |
| Gemini share link | gemini.google.com (not the mobile app) | Stored in the app's Firestore | Anyone with the link, in a multi-user app | Not stated by Google | Not stated by Google |
| Netlify Drop / GitHub Pages | A browser | Extra setup or another service | Depends on that service | Redeploy | No |
| CodePen | A browser | No, submissions are stripped | Not applicable | Yes, edit the Pen | No |
Good to know before you switch
Hostus has no custom domain: every page lives at a hostus.page subdomain, and every page carries a small Hostus badge. It hosts single HTML files, optionally with a folder of images, video and fonts, not React build output, so ask Gemini for one self-contained file first. People cannot remix your page the way Copy Canvas allows; they get the page, not the editor. Free is 20 documents, 2 MB in total (HTML and media together) and 100 form responses a month; responses over the limit are held, not lost.