How to upload a file using File Manager in cPanel

Updated: 3 November 2026 · Applies to: cPanel File Manager

To upload a file to your cPanel account, open File Manager, navigate to the destination folder, and use its Upload button. This example uploads test.html to public_html, the web root, so it would be reachable afterward at yourdomain.com/test.html; uploading into a subfolder instead, for example public_html/test, would make it reachable at yourdomain.com/test/test.html.

Steps

1. Log in to cPanel.
2. Under the Files section, open File Manager.
3. Navigate to the folder you want to upload into. For a file meant to be reachable directly on your domain, that is public_html.
4. Click Upload in the toolbar.
5. Click Select File (or drag and drop the file onto the upload page) and choose the file from your computer.
6. Once the upload finishes, go back to File Manager and confirm the file is listed in the folder.

Verify it is actually reachable

Visit the file in a browser at the address matching where you uploaded it, for example:

https://yourdomain.com/test.html

If it does not load, check that it ended up in the right folder, and that its permissions allow the web server to read it; a plain HTML or image file uploaded through File Manager normally gets correct permissions automatically, but it is worth a quick check if something that should work does not.