How to Get a Free DOI from Zenodo (Step by Step)

Zenodo is a free, open repository run by CERN. Everything you publish there gets a DataCite DOI at no cost, which makes it the quickest way for an author to get a DOI for a paper, preprint, poster or dataset.

Before you start

• The final file (PDF for a paper; any format for data).
• Title, authors with their ORCID iDs, a short description, keywords and a licence (for example CC BY 4.0).
• If it’s a published article: the journal name, volume, issue and pages.

Step by step

1. Sign in at zenodo.org (with ORCID, GitHub or an email account).
2. Choose New upload and add your file.
3. Under the DOI question, answer that you don’t already have one, and let Zenodo give you a new DOI. Only enter an existing DOI if this exact file already has one somewhere else.
4. Pick the resource type, for example Publication → Journal article or Dataset.
5. Fill in the title, creators (with ORCID iDs), description, publication date, keywords and licence.
6. For a journal article, add the journal title, volume, issue and pages in the publishing information.
7. Optionally submit it to a community (some communities review uploads first).
8. Preview, then Publish. Your DOI appears on the record, in the form 10.5281/zenodo.1234567.

After publishing you can edit the description, but you can’t swap the file. A corrected file goes up as a new version with its own DOI; Zenodo links the versions together.

Is a Zenodo DOI good enough for a journal?

For a journal, usually not as its main DOI system. It works, but the trade-offs add up:

	Zenodo (DataCite)	Crossref (your own prefix)
Cost	Free	Yearly fee plus a small fee per DOI (waived in some countries)
Where the DOI leads	The Zenodo record	Your journal’s article page
Your journal’s identity	Zenodo’s prefix (10.5281)	Your own prefix
OJS registration	Manual, one upload at a time	Built in, one click or automatic
Citation tracking (Cited-by), reference linking	No	Yes

Zenodo is a good fit for preprints, datasets, conference posters and supplementary files. For journal articles it can be a stop-gap while you join Crossref. See how to get DOIs through Crossref.

Never give supplementary data the article’s DOI. Upload it to Zenodo for its own DOI and link the two in the description.

This guide is independent and isn’t endorsed by Crossref, DataCite, Zenodo or the DOI Foundation. Fees, rules and screens are theirs to change: the details here were checked in October 2026, so confirm them on the official site before you budget or apply.

Questions

Is Zenodo really free?

Yes, for normal use. Zenodo is funded by CERN and the European Commission. Each record can hold up to 50 GB; ask Zenodo before uploading more.

How long does a Zenodo DOI take?

It’s issued as soon as you publish the record, usually within minutes.

Can my journal give every article a Zenodo DOI?

Technically yes, one upload per article, but the DOIs lead to Zenodo rather than your site and carry Zenodo’s prefix. For a journal, Crossref is the better long-term choice.

Can I reserve a DOI before publishing?

Yes. Zenodo can reserve a DOI for a draft, so you can print it in the file before you publish.