In the past, Google did offer a free fax service, called Google Fax. Also sometimes called Gmail Free Fax. It appeared to be a third party app and had integrated with Google Drive. Google does a good job of trying new services. However, this one was apparently discontinued in 2021. One of the issues was privacy and security concerns. Also, there were strict limitations on the number of free faxes allowed.
While there are occasionally free fax services that come and go, there has not been a consistent provider. One of the biggest concerns is that many faxes include personal information and these vendors were not clear about their data security. In the real estate world, there are concerns about wire fraud with too many documented cases of missing earnest monies after bank information was faxed to a title company. In the medical industry, there is now a government regulation requiring the use of HIPAA compliant protocols for receiving any faxes.
So, if you only have the need for an occasional fax, the best option is to set up you local printer – scanner – fax machine to allow access to your phone line. It can be set so that the fax part never answers a call unless you specifically allow it. Here’s an article about setting up your local machine to send and receive faxes.
The current best way to send a single fax is to visit your local FedEx store. It’s a quick and cheap service. However, if you expect to send and receive faxes for business purposes, we would recommend a service provider like FAXtopia. Click here for their discount fax service program. For less than $10- per month you can own your fax number and securely send and receive faxes to anyone. You can even set it up to send faxes through your existing e-mail account.
That would be the cheapest way to send and receive faxes on line, through your existing e-mail account. You can also use this fax service on a temporary basis.