Compress PDF
Make a PDF smaller so it fits an email or upload limit.
- Takes
- PDF × 1
- Returns
- PDF × 1
Runs in your browser
Drop a PDF here
Nothing is uploaded. The compression happens in this tab.
Attachment limits are the usual reason a document won't send. This does real work on the file rather than re-saving it — and when a PDF genuinely can't be made smaller, it says so instead of handing back a copy.
Using Compress PDF, step by step
- 01
Drop in a PDF.
- 02
Compress. Photos inside the file are re-encoded, and anything stored uncompressed is packed down.
- 03
Check the before-and-after sizes, then download the smaller PDF.
What people use it for
- Get a scan under an email attachment limit.
- Meet a size cap on an upload or application portal.
- Shrink a photo-heavy document before sharing it.
What goes in, and where it goes
- What it accepts
- One PDF at a time. There are no settings to choose.
- What you get back
- One PDF with the same pages, page sizes and text. You're shown the original size, the new size and the reduction, and the download only appears when the result is genuinely smaller.
- Where your file is processed
- Compress PDF runs in your browser. The file is read into this tab, and even the image re-encoding happens here using your browser's own graphics engine. Nothing is uploaded, and nothing is kept once you close the tab.
Common questions
How much smaller will my PDF get?
It depends entirely on the file, so no figure is promised. PDFs full of photos usually shrink a lot; a text-only PDF that's already efficiently stored may not shrink at all.
Will compressing reduce quality?
Photos are re-encoded at a lower quality and very large ones are scaled down, so images can look softer. Text, pages and layout are left untouched.
Why didn't my PDF get smaller?
Either it was already efficiently stored, or its weight is in things this tool doesn't touch — embedded fonts, or images it deliberately skips. You're told plainly rather than handed an unchanged copy.