Does Docusign have a fax number?

Not one general number to send things to. When you sign on paper and pick fax as the return method, or receive an envelope by fax, Docusign gives you a cover page for that envelope with the number to fax it back to. The cover page has to be the first page of the fax, because it links your pages to the envelope.

Is there a way to electronically fax documents?

Yes. An online fax app sends a PDF or a photo over the internet to any fax machine, with no fax machine or phone line on your side. In mFax you choose New Fax, enter the number, attach the file and press Send; our guide to faxing from a computer covers the other ways.

How do I know if my fax was sent successfully?

Look for a delivery status, not just the absence of an error. In mFax a fax shows Delivered once the receiving machine confirms every page, and Download receipt gives you a PDF record; our guide to fax confirmation emails explains what each kind of confirmation proves.

Docusign Fax: How to Fax Signed Documents (Step by Step)

Q: Can I send a fax through Docusign?

Only in two narrow ways. A signer can sign on paper and fax the pages back through Print & Sign, and accounts with fax delivery, a paid feature an admin has to turn on, can send an envelope to a fax recipient. Without fax delivery, download the signed PDF and send it with an online fax app such as mFax.

Q: What does "fax pending" mean in Docusign?

A signer chose to sign on paper and return the pages by fax, and Docusign is waiting for that fax before it completes their step, so the envelope can't finish yet. The signer can fax the pages with Docusign's cover page first, or go back to the original email link and sign electronically or upload a scan instead.

Docusign is built for email, not fax. It uses fax in two narrow places: signers can sign on paper and fax the pages back, and accounts with the paid fax delivery feature can send envelopes to a fax machine. Without it, download the signed PDF and fax it yourself. Here is each Docusign fax route, step by step.

Docusign Fax: How to Fax Signed Documents

By Michael Chen · Published May 24, 2025 · 11 min read

Quick answer: Docusign is built around email, and it uses fax in only two places. A signer can sign on paper and fax the pages back to Docusign (Print & Sign), and accounts that pay for fax delivery can send an envelope to a fax recipient. If your account doesn't have fax delivery, Docusign can't send anything to a fax number: download the signed PDF and send it with an online fax app such as mFax.

People search for a Docusign fax option for three different jobs: returning an envelope they signed on paper, sending an envelope to someone who only has a fax machine, and getting a signed contract to a lender, insurer or county office that still insists on fax. Docusign handles the first on its own. Inside Docusign, the other two need fax delivery, a paid feature that an admin has to switch on and that isn't on every plan.

Without it, getting a signed document onto someone's fax machine takes a few minutes with mFax: download the signed PDF from Docusign, type the fax number, attach the file and send it, free for 7 days. The receiving machine confirms every page, and you can download a PDF receipt as proof. Below is each route, step by step, built from Docusign's help pages, its API reference and the answers its own staff give on the Docusign Community forum, read on October 26, 2026.

Can I Send a Fax Through Docusign?

Only in two narrow ways. Docusign is an e-signature service: envelopes travel by email and are signed on screen. Fax comes in at the edges, for signers and recipients who can't or won't sign electronically.

What you need	Does Docusign do it?	How
Return an envelope you signed on paper	Yes, through Print & Sign	Choose fax as the return method and fax the pages to Docusign, its cover page first
Send an envelope to someone who only has a fax machine	Only with fax delivery, a paid feature an admin turns on	Add them as a fax recipient who needs to sign or receives a copy
Get a signed PDF to an office that only takes fax	Not without fax delivery	Download the signed PDF and fax it with an online fax app
Fax completed envelopes automatically, without fax delivery	Not by itself	Connect a Docusign webhook to a fax API (see the developer section below)
Fax documents into a Docusign Room	No, retired on February 1, 2022	Upload them instead

Fax delivery and its plan limits are explained further down. Adobe's e-signature tool has a fax story of its own, told in our guide to faxing from Adobe Acrobat.

How to Fax a Signed Docusign Document to Anyone

Download the completed document as a PDF, then fax it from an online fax app. It works whether you sent the envelope or signed it, and needs no fax machine or phone line.

Download the completed PDF from Docusign

Once everyone has signed, Docusign emails a confirmation with an option to download the completed documents, and the sender can also download them from the completed envelope. The download choices, as a Docusign employee listed them in January 2026, are Document, Certificate of Completion and Combine all PDFs into a single file. For most faxes, the document alone is what the other side wants.

Start a new fax in mFax

Open the mFax app on your iPhone, Android phone or Windows PC, or start in your browser, and choose New Fax. Enter the recipient's fax number with its country code: +1 for the US and Canada.

Attach the signed PDF

Add the file you downloaded. The Combined Document card shows the page count and an estimated send time before anything goes out. One fax can carry up to 60 pages and 100 MB in total.

Add a cover sheet if the office expects one

Pick a template and fill in your name, the subject and a short message. Tick Confidential to add a HIPAA confidentiality notice when the document carries health details.

Send and keep the receipt

Press Send. The fax stays In Progress while the pages cross, around 40 seconds a page by the app's estimate, and changes to Delivered once the receiving machine confirms every page. Open it and choose Download receipt for a PDF you can file with the contract.

Should You Fax the Certificate of Completion Too?

Only when the recipient needs proof of how the document was signed. The Certificate of Completion is Docusign's audit record of the envelope. A Docusign moderator lists what it holds: the envelope ID, the number of pages, the number of signatures and initials, signer details, IP addresses, signature images and key event timestamps (Docusign Community, October 2024).

Most offices that ask for a faxed signature just want the signed pages. Add the certificate when a lender, court or compliance team asks for evidence of the e-signature itself, or when you would rather answer that question before anyone asks it. It adds pages, so check the total on the Combined Document card before you send.

Is a Faxed Docusign Document Still Legally Valid?

The signature is; the fax delivers a copy of it. Under the federal ESIGN Act, a signature or contract "may not be denied legal effect, validity, or enforceability solely because it is in electronic form" (15 U.S.C. § 7001). Faxing the signed PDF doesn't change how it was signed. It sends a copy, much as a photocopy of a wet-ink contract would.

What a fax can't carry is Docusign's evidence trail, which stays in the envelope and in the Certificate of Completion. If the signature might be questioned later, keep the original envelope and send the certificate along. Whether a faxed copy is enough for a particular filing is up to the office receiving it. Our guide to whether a fax is a legal document covers when faxed signatures hold up and when they get challenged.

How to Sign on Paper and Fax It Back in Docusign

If the sender allows it, Docusign's Print & Sign option lets you print the envelope, sign it by hand and return it by fax or by upload. It is the one fax route built into signing, and the steps below follow a Docusign Community moderator's description from April 2025. Depending on the version, the option is labelled Print & Sign or Sign on paper, sometimes under an Other Actions or More options menu.

Open the envelope and choose to sign on paper

Open the Docusign email, review the documents and pick the paper option instead of signing on screen.

Choose fax as the return method

Docusign asks whether you will return the signed documents by upload or by fax. Choose Fax and select Continue.

Download the cover page and documents

Select Download to get the fax cover page together with the documents, then Finish to leave the signing screen. If you quit before returning the pages and come back later, you have to download and sign them again.

Print, fill in and sign

Print the cover page and the documents, complete every field and sign by hand.

Fax everything to Docusign, cover page first

Follow the instructions printed on the cover page, which tell you where to fax it. The cover page must be the first page of the fax: it links your pages to the envelope, and Docusign warns that documents may be lost if it isn't first.

Wait for the match

When the fax arrives, Docusign matches the pages to the sender's envelope. Once every signer has finished, you get a confirmation email with an option to download the completed documents as a PDF.

The cover page goes first, every time

Docusign's cover page is what ties a fax to your envelope, so it has to be page 1, and the fax number to use is the one in its instructions, not one from a forum or another envelope. If you have a scanner, the upload option skips the fax leg altogether: Docusign's developer blog notes that choosing fax-back instead of scan-and-upload can delay processing further (Docusign Developers).

No Fax Machine? Send the Pages From Your Phone

You can fax the pages to Docusign from mFax like any other fax, as long as Docusign's cover page arrives as page 1:

Put the cover page first. With the camera scanner in the mFax app for iPhone, iPad and Android, scan the printed cover page as page 1, flat and square so everything on it stays readable, then the signed pages. Don't attach the file you downloaded from Docusign: it holds the unsigned documents as well as the cover page.
Leave out the mFax cover sheet. An mFax cover sheet would become page 1 and push Docusign's cover page down to page 2. Docusign's own cover page is the only one this fax needs.
Send it to the number in Docusign's instructions, check the page count, and keep the Download receipt PDF until the envelope shows as completed.

Faxing from a phone for the first time? Our guide to faxing from an iPhone walks through the app and the browser version.

What Does "Fax Pending" Mean in Docusign?

It means a signer chose to sign on paper and return the pages by fax, and Docusign is still waiting for that fax. Docusign's API reference defines the faxpending status this way: the recipient "has finished signing and the system is waiting a fax attachment by the recipient before completing their signing step" (Docusign eSignature OpenAPI specification). Until the fax arrives, that signer's step stays open and the envelope can't complete.

What to do depends on which side you are on:

You're the signer: fax the pages with Docusign's cover page first, as above. Changed your mind? Go back to the link in the original Docusign email and sign electronically, or upload a scan instead.
You're the sender: the envelope is waiting on that person, not on Docusign. Ask whether the fax went out, and point them back to the original email if signing on screen is easier.
You're the admin: if paper signing causes more trouble than it saves, turn off Allow recipients to sign on paper in Signing Settings. A separate setting, Allow senders to override sign on paper, decides whether senders may switch it on or off for a single envelope.

Why Is Docusign Asking for a Fax Number?

Some senders find a fax number field suddenly required for every signer, highlighted red and impossible to fill in, and several Docusign Community threads describe exactly that. Start with each recipient's Delivery drop-down: a recipient set to Fax needs a fax number. Beyond that, the suggestions in those threads are to have an admin check the fax delivery option in Sending Settings and the sign-on-paper option in Signing Settings. When none of these explains it, open a case with Docusign support and have the envelope ID ready.

Docusign Fax Delivery: Sending an Envelope to a Fax Number

This is Docusign's fax delivery feature, and it stays off until an account admin turns it on. A Docusign employee on the Community forum points admins to Sending Settings and the option Enable fax delivery to recipients, after which a sender can choose email or fax for each recipient (Docusign Community). In the API, the account setting is faxOutEnabled and the recipient's deliveryMethod is fax.

Once it is on, Docusign's help page on faxing documents for signature describes the sender's side:

Add the recipient and select Fax in the Delivery drop-down.
Enter the recipient's name and fax number. A contact with a saved fax number fills it in for you.
Set the recipient's action to Needs to Sign or Receives a Copy.
Add a private message if you need one. It appears on the fax cover sheet, because fax recipients don't see the email message.

A fax recipient who needs to sign must use the cover sheet Docusign provides and fax the completed documents back to the number listed on it. If they fax the pages back some other way, the help page warns, their actions are not recorded in your Docusign account.

Whether you can turn fax delivery on depends on the plan. In October 2024 a Docusign moderator wrote that fax delivery is a paid feature on most plans: included with IAM plans, available at extra cost on Direct plans, and not available on Web plans (Docusign Community). Your admin or Docusign's sales team can confirm what your account has.

Two more limits, both from Docusign's own staff:

Salesforce: fax delivery doesn't work through Docusign's Salesforce integration. The only workaround is a fax number hard-coded into the linked server template, which Docusign doesn't recommend (November 2024).
Docusign Rooms: all fax features were retired from Rooms on February 1, 2022, because of low usage.

Here are Docusign's two fax features side by side:

	Print & Sign fax-back	Fax delivery
Who sends the fax	The signer, to Docusign	Docusign, to the recipient
Who turns it on	An admin: Allow recipients to sign on paper (Signing Settings)	An admin: Enable fax delivery to recipients (Sending Settings)
API field	`enableWetSign` on the envelope	`faxOutEnabled` on the account, `deliveryMethod` on the recipient
What the other side needs	A printer, plus a fax machine or a fax app	A fax machine

No Fax Delivery on Your Plan?

You can still reach a fax-only recipient, just outside Docusign. Fax them the document from mFax and give them your own fax number for the reply. Every mFax plan includes a US or Canadian number for receiving, picked in Settings › Fax number, and incoming faxes are saved as PDFs in the app.

Keep in mind what changes: a page signed by hand and faxed back is a wet-ink signature on a fax, not a Docusign e-signature, so there is no Certificate of Completion behind it. For many forms that is fine; for an agreement you may have to defend later, the Docusign envelope is the stronger record.

Automating Docusign to Fax: A Developer Sketch

There is no ready-made connector between Docusign and mFax. If your team faxes completed envelopes every day and your plan has no fax delivery, two documented APIs make the link:

Docusign Connect posts an envelope-completed event to your HTTPS endpoint, with the account ID and envelope ID under data. Turn on HMAC in the Connect configuration so you can verify each message.
Download the signed PDF from the envelope's documents endpoint, using the special document ID combined: GET /restapi/v2.1/accounts/ACCOUNT_ID/envelopes/ENVELOPE_ID/documents/combined. Add certificate=true to append the Certificate of Completion; by default it is left out.
Fax it with the mFax API: POST https://developers.mfax.to/v1/faxes with two form fields, to (the number in E.164 format) and file (the PDF). The response is 202 with a fax object, and the fax.delivered or fax.failed webhook tells you how it ended.

In Node.js, the whole bridge fits in one handler:

// Docusign Connect (JSON) -> mFax API. Node 18+ with Express.
app.post('/docusign/connect', express.raw({ type: 'application/json' }), async (req, res) => {
  // Verify the X-DocuSign-Signature-1 HMAC over req.body before trusting it.
  const event = JSON.parse(req.body);
  res.sendStatus(200); // answer Connect quickly, then do the work

  if (event.event !== 'envelope-completed') return;
  const { accountId, envelopeId } = event.data;
  if (await alreadyFaxed(envelopeId)) return; // Connect may send an event more than once

  const pdf = await fetch(
    `${DOCUSIGN_BASE_URI}/restapi/v2.1/accounts/${accountId}/envelopes/${envelopeId}/documents/combined`,
    { headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${docusignToken}` } }
  ).then((r) => r.arrayBuffer());

  const form = new FormData();
  form.append('to', await faxNumberFor(envelopeId)); // E.164, e.g. +12125550147
  form.append('file', new Blob([pdf], { type: 'application/pdf' }), `${envelopeId}.pdf`);

  const fax = await fetch('https://developers.mfax.to/v1/faxes', {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.MFAX_API_KEY}` },
    body: form,
  }).then((r) => r.json());

  await recordFax(envelopeId, fax.uuid); // the outcome arrives as fax.delivered or fax.failed
});

The helpers are yours to write. faxNumberFor() usually reads the destination from your CRM or from a field the sender fills in on the envelope, and the account's base URI and access token come from Docusign's OAuth flow. mFax delivers its webhooks at least once as well, so deduplicate them on the event id.

The API comes with mFax Business: there is no separate API fee, and pages come out of the plan's allowance, about 4¢ a page. Our send fax API tutorial covers the mFax side in more detail, and the reference lives at developers.mfax.to.

No Docusign Envelope? Sign the PDF Yourself

If someone emailed you a plain PDF and asked you to sign it and fax it back, you don't need Docusign at all. Open it in our free PDF editor: type into the blanks, draw your signature and place it, then download the file. It all happens in your browser, with nothing uploaded, no account and no watermark.

Or skip the download: attach the PDF in mFax, open the page, choose Edit page and then Sign, draw your signature with a finger, mouse or trackpad, place it and send the fax.

Either way, that is a drawn signature on the page, not a Docusign envelope with a Certificate of Completion behind it. When the sender has sent you a Docusign envelope, sign it there, or use Print & Sign if you have to sign on paper.

For Offices Caught Between Docusign and Fax

Real estate, legal and medical offices often live in both worlds: contracts get signed in Docusign, and a lender, a court or a clinic still wants a fax. mFax Business gives your office its own fax number, HIPAA-compliant faxing with a signed BAA, seats for the team on web, mobile and desktop, and the API above. Plans start from about $9/mo, and you build your own plan from the seats and pages you need. Our guide to HIPAA-compliant fax explains what the BAA covers.

Fax Your Signed Docusign Document Now

Get mFax on the App Store or Google Play, where it's rated 4.7, install mFax for Windows, or open it in your browser. Attach the signed PDF from Docusign, type the fax number and send it free with the 7-day trial. The fax and its receipt stay in your history until you delete them.

Docusign Fax: How to Fax Signed Documents