Give a file away and still see who wanted it

Set a listing's price to zero and it becomes free -- but somebody still has to claim it, and claiming still creates a record.

That is on purpose. A file handed out with nothing written down tells you nothing afterwards: you cannot see whether four hundred people wanted it or four did, and you cannot tell a free design that is doing its job from one nobody noticed.

To see it:
1. Open Printables (/printables).
2. Go to the Demand tab.

Each listing shows how many people have it in their library, split into bought and free. The same number appears under each listing in the Listings tab.

A practical use: publish a free personal-use version and a paid commercial-use version of the same design. The free column tells you how many people found it worth printing; the bought column tells you how many of those needed to sell prints. That is a far better signal than either number alone.

Free listings are otherwise identical -- same license flow, same protected delivery, same ten-minute download link.