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Compress a PDF

Shrink a PDF for email and upload limits.

PDFPDF

or drop them here

Processed on your device. Nothing is uploaded.

Compress PDF files to get them under email attachment caps and upload limits on job portals, school sites and government forms. Choose how hard to squeeze, and you’ll see the new file size before you download. At the recommended level the pictures inside the PDF are shrunk while the text stays real text you can select and search. Several PDFs can be shrunk in one batch.

Unlike most PDF compressors, this one doesn’t upload your document. The file is reduced inside your browser on your own device, so there’s no fixed file-size cap. Very large files depend on how much memory your device has, and a computer copes with more than a phone.

Compressing is free, with no sign-up and no watermark. You can shrink a whole folder of scans in one batch, and if the first result isn’t small enough, simply try again at a stronger level with no daily cap to worry about.

How to use Compress PDF

  1. Add your PDFs

    Drop the PDFs you want to shrink onto the page, or select them from your device.

  2. Choose a compression level

    Pick Light: best quality, Recommended, or Strong: smallest file.

  3. Click Compress PDF

    Press Compress PDF and compare the original size with the new one.

  4. Download

    Save the smaller PDF. If it’s still too large, try a stronger level.

Which compression level should you use?

The three levels work differently, and the difference matters if anyone needs to search or copy text from the file:

  • Light: best quality tidies the file without touching its contents. Savings are modest, but nothing about the document changes.
  • Recommended scales the photos and scans inside the PDF down to 150 DPI and re-saves them. Text stays selectable and searchable, and logos and charts drawn as shapes stay sharp. Photo-heavy and scanned PDFs shrink a lot; a PDF that is almost all text has little to shrink.
  • Strong: smallest file lowers picture quality further. If redrawing whole pages as images gets the file clearly smaller still, it does that, and the result tells you so, because text on those pages can then no longer be selected. Use it when you need to hit a strict limit.

How to reduce PDF size for email

Gmail and Outlook cap attachments at around 20 to 25 MB, and many upload forms allow only 2 to 5 MB. Start with Recommended, which brings most scanned documents well under those limits. If it’s still too big, use Strong.

For a document that must stay searchable, such as a contract or a resume going through applicant tracking software, use Light or Recommended, which both keep the text. If that isn’t enough, splitting the PDF into two parts with Split PDF is often better than turning text into images with Strong.

Why compressing in your browser is different

Popular compressors upload your file, process it on their servers and impose free-tier size caps. Here, the work happens on your device, so a large scan isn’t blocked by a file-size cap and isn’t sent anywhere. The practical limit is your device’s memory: files of a few hundred megabytes are best done on a computer, since a phone browser may run out of memory and reload the page.

Questions people ask

Is this PDF compressor free?

Yes. Compress as many PDFs as you like, with no account, no watermark and no daily limit.

Is it safe to compress a PDF online here?

Yes. The PDF is compressed inside your browser and never uploaded, so it stays on your device.

Will compression make my text unselectable?

Not with Light or Recommended: both keep the text selectable and searchable. Strong may turn pages into images when that is the only way to get much smaller, and tells you when it has.

How can I compress a PDF to under 1 MB?

Try Strong: smallest file. For very long or image-heavy documents, you may also need to split the PDF into smaller parts.

Does compressing a PDF reduce quality?

Light has no visible effect. Recommended and Strong lower the quality of photos and scans to save space; Recommended is usually hard to tell apart on screen. Text and line drawings stay sharp unless Strong turns the pages into images.

Is there a file size limit?

No fixed limit. The work runs on your device, so the constraint is its memory. Very large PDFs (hundreds of megabytes) may not fit on a phone; use a computer for those.

Can I compress a PDF on my phone?

Yes. Open this page in your mobile browser on iPhone or Android, choose the PDF and tap Compress PDF.

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