How to choose your storage region for data residency and GDPR?
Many enterprise teams must store customer data inside a specific jurisdiction to comply with GDPR, customer contracts, or industry regulations. Papermark supports multi-region storage so you can choose where your documents are stored when you set up your workspace.
Multi-region storage is available on the Enterprise plan. Contact support@papermark.com to enable a specific region for your team.
Available regions
Papermark stores documents in AWS regions across three geographies:
| Region | Best for |
|---|---|
| US | Teams primarily operating in North America |
| EU | Teams that need GDPR-aligned EU residency (Frankfurt) |
| APAC | Teams with operations or compliance needs in Asia-Pacific (Sydney) |
Once your region is set, all documents you upload are stored in that region and never leave it. Viewers around the world can still access the documents through Papermark, but the underlying file storage stays in the region you chose.
What "data stays in the region" means
When you select a region:
- Document files are stored in object storage inside the region (S3)
- Database records for the workspace live in the region
- Backups stay inside the region
- Document previews are generated inside the region
- Watermarks are applied inside the region
The only data that may leave the region is request routing metadata (so that Papermark knows where to route a viewer's request) and aggregated analytics counters that don't include document content.
Step-by-step: enable multi-region storage
Step 1: Contact Papermark
Multi-region storage is configured per workspace by the Papermark team. Email support@papermark.com with:
- Your workspace name and owner email
- The region you want (US, EU, or APAC)
- Any compliance requirement you're meeting (for example, GDPR or a specific customer contract)
Step 2: Migration window (if applicable)
If your workspace already has documents in a different region, we'll schedule a migration window with you. Migrations are zero-downtime for viewers and are typically completed within a few hours.
Step 3: Confirmation
Once your workspace is on the target region, you'll receive a written confirmation and the region appears in Settings, Security, Data residency.
How multi-region works with viewers
Viewers can access documents from anywhere in the world. Papermark automatically routes their requests to the nearest edge location, so the experience is fast regardless of where the document is stored.
The document data itself never crosses the region boundary, but the viewer's request reaches the closest edge for performance. This is the same architecture used by most enterprise document platforms.
GDPR and compliance
When you choose EU as your storage region:
- All documents are stored in AWS Frankfurt
- Backups remain inside the EU
- Papermark is on standard contractual clauses (SCCs) for any cross-border data flow that's required for service operation
- A data processing addendum (DPA) is available on request
For full details on Papermark's GDPR posture, see GDPR compliance.
Use cases
- EU financial services: required to keep customer data inside the EU under MiFID II and local rules.
- APAC enterprises: regulators in Australia, Singapore, and other markets often require data residency.
- US public sector: organizations selling to government may need US-only data handling.
- Customer contract clauses: some enterprise customers require their service providers to host data in specific regions.
Frequently asked questions
Related guides
Need help? Contact support@papermark.com or use the in-app chat.