How to open a PDF file without downloading it

Problem

When you open a PDF in Chrome Browser, the file downloads instead of opening automatically.

Environment

  • Chrome Browser
  • Chrome OS 

Solution

  1. Go to Chrome Browser.
  2. You need to set the Default behavior to Open PDFs in Chrome from:
  3. chrome://settings/content/pdfDocuments
  4. Navigate to Settings > Privacy and security > Site settings > Additional content settings > PDF documents.
  5. Select the option Open PDF in Chrome.

Cause

Chrome Browser defaults to Download PDFs out of the box.